Sirach — Chapter 50
Simon the high priest and the blessing of Israel
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Hebrew–Greek comparison and notes · III. Wisdom
50:1 Simon son of Onias, the high priest, repaired the house in his lifetime and strengthened the sanctuary in his days.
50:2 By him the height of the double wall was founded, a high retaining wall around the sacred precinct.
50:3 In his days a water reservoir was hewn out, a cistern whose circumference was like a sea.
50:4 He cared for his people against a fall and strengthened the city against a siege.
50:5 How glorious he was with the people surrounding him, when he came out from the house of the curtain!
50:6 He was like the morning star among clouds, like the full moon in its days,
50:7 like the sun shining upon the sanctuary of the Most High, and like the rainbow gleaming in clouds of glory,
50:8 like a rose blossom in the days of new growth, like lilies beside an outflow of water, like a shoot of Lebanon in summer days,
50:9 like fire and frankincense upon a firepan, like a vessel of beaten gold adorned with every costly stone,
50:10 like an olive tree flourishing with fruit, and like a cypress rising into the clouds.
50:11 When he took up the robe of glory and clothed himself with the fullness of splendor, as he ascended the holy altar he glorified the sanctuary’s enclosure.
50:12 When he received portions from the priests’ hands, standing himself beside the altar hearth, a crown of brothers surrounded him, like a growth of cedars in Lebanon; they encircled him like palm trunks,
50:13 all the sons of Aaron in their glory, with the Lord’s offering in their hands before the whole assembly of Israel.
50:14 As he completed his ministry at the altars, adorning the offering of the Most High Almighty,
50:15 he stretched his hand over the libation vessel and poured a drink offering from the blood of the grape. He poured it at the altar’s foundations, a pleasing fragrance to the Most High, King of all.
50:16 Then the sons of Aaron cried out and sounded their hammered trumpets. They made a great sound heard as a remembrance before the Most High.
50:17 Then all the people together hurried and fell facedown upon the earth to worship their Lord, the Almighty God Most High.
50:18 The psalm singers praised with their voices; amid a very great sound the melody grew sweet.
50:19 The people entreated the Lord Most High in prayer before the Merciful One, until the Lord’s ceremony was completed and they finished His service.
50:20 Then he came down and raised his hands over the whole assembly of the sons of Israel, to give the Lord’s blessing from his lips and to glory in His name.
50:21 They bowed down a second time to receive the blessing from the Most High.
50:22 And now bless the God of all, who does great things everywhere, who exalts our days from the womb and deals with us according to His mercy.
50:23 May He give us gladness of heart, and may there be peace in Israel in our days, throughout the days of eternity.
50:24 May He entrust His mercy to us, and in our days may He redeem us.
50:25 My soul is disgusted with two nations, and the third is no nation:
50:26 those who sit on Mount Samaria, the Philistines, and the foolish people who dwell in Shechem.
50:27 Jesus son of Sirach Eleazar, the Jerusalemite, inscribed instruction in understanding and knowledge in this book; he poured wisdom like rain from his heart.
50:28 Blessed is the one who occupies himself with these things; by setting them upon his heart he will become wise.
50:29 For if he does them, he will be strong for everything, because the Lord’s light is his path.
Source and editorial notes
Working translation preserved from the recovered manuscript of 8 September 2026. Declared source: Septuaginta, Rahlfs–Hanhart, 2006, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, publisher’s Greek main text. Independent linguistic and critical-apparatus review remains outstanding. Source-access and reception claims in the inherited notes have not been freshly revalidated. Chapter and section headings are editorial.
The translator’s prologue is separate from the 51 chapters. Its eight source units map to publisher labels 1, 1a–1g; main-text 1:1 maps to 1h. Source 5:15 includes material often numbered 6:1, so chapter 6 begins at 6:2. Source label gaps are preserved; no text is invented.
50:1 The Greek name and patronymic are retained without inserting an identification as Simon the First or Second.
50:2 “Wall” supplies the structure understood after διπλῆς, “double”; the exact architecture is not reconstructed.
50:5 The source’s “house of the curtain” is retained as a sanctuary expression without claiming a precise ritual occasion absent from the verse.
50:8 “Days of new growth” represents the elliptical ἐν ἡμέραις νέων; the specific season or botanical referent is not supplied as certain.
50:12 The portions are sacrificial animal parts in context; “brothers” retains the priestly familial designation.
50:14 The source has plural “altars” here, despite singular expressions nearby.
50:15 “Blood of the grape” retains the wine image; “King of all” renders παμβασιλεύς.
50:19 Κόσμος is the ordered arrangement or adornment of the rite, here rendered “ceremony”; it does not mean the created world in this setting.
50:24 Ἐμπιστεύσαι is rendered “entrust”; the wording does not explicitly say that an already entrusted mercy is withdrawn or renewed.
50:26 The author’s hostile historical description is retained as source language. “Mount Samaria” is not replaced by a different mountain from another textual tradition.
50:27 The publisher’s order Ἰησοῦς υἱὸς Σιραχ Ελεαζαρ is also printed in Swete, p. 752, with his spelling Σειράχ. “Eleazar” is retained without rearranging the genealogy into “Jesus son of Eleazar son of Sirach.” Jesus here is the book’s author, not Jesus Christ. [SWETE-SIR]
50:29 The final pronoun may be read in relation to the person walking or to the Lord; “his path” leaves the immediate human referent available without adding a possessive name.