Sirach — Chapter 22 — Hebrew–Greek comparison
Folly and the Preservation of Friendship
| Hebrew–English · Literal-Smooth | Greek–English · Literal-Smooth | Classification & Notes |
|---|---|---|
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | A lazy person has been compared to a filthy stone, and everyone will hiss at his dishonor. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note22:1 The source does not specify what soiled the stone; no particular sanitary use is asserted. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | A lazy person has been compared to a lump of dung; everyone who picks it up will shake his hand. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note22:2 The coarse comparison is preserved. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | A father’s shame is in begetting an uninstructed child, and a daughter brings about loss. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note22:3 The ancient author’s harsh household saying is retained, including its gendered second clause, without turning it into the translator’s own evaluation. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | A prudent daughter will inherit her husband, but one who brings shame brings grief to her parent. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note22:4 Inherit her husband retains the unusual κληρονομήσει ἄνδρα αὐτῆς; no silent substitution of obtain or preserve is made. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | A shameless woman shames both father and husband and will be dishonored by both. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | An untimely discourse is music in mourning, but lashes and discipline are wisdom at every time. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note22:6 The comparison and the ancient corporal-discipline language are retained. The next printed label is 9; labels 7–8 are absent. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | The one teaching a fool is gluing a potsherd together, waking a sleeper from deep sleep. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | The one speaking to a fool is speaking to someone drowsy; at the end he will say, “What is it?” | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. |
Hebrew 22:11 · fragmentary Weep for the dead, for his light has ceased; weep for a fool, for understanding has ceased. […] weep for the dead, for he rests; […] than death is an evil life. Hebrew witness C · C VI Rectoעל מת לבכות כי חדל אורו / ועל כסיל לבכות כי חדל בינה / [ ]כות על מת כי נח / ] [ מ מות חיים רעים· Additional folio transcriptions: 2 | Weep over a dead person, for he has lost the light; weep also over a fool, for he has lost understanding. Weep more gently over the dead, because he has found rest, but the fool’s life is worse than death. | Similar · Hebrew 22:11 — C continuation damaged; missing words not restored. Classification assesses only the surviving/readable wording, not lost portions. |
Hebrew 22:12 · fragmentary […] seven days; […] all the days of his life. | Mourning for the dead lasts seven days; for a fool and an ungodly person, all the days of his life. | Similar · Hebrew 22:12 — C fragments preserve time contrast; subjects lost. Classification assesses only the surviving/readable wording, not lost portions. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | Do not multiply words with a fool or go to someone without understanding. Guard against him so that you do not have trouble or become stained by what he shakes off. Turn away from him, and you will find rest and will not grow weary of his madness. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note22:13 The unusual shaking-off image is retained, recalling the filthy material earlier in the chapter; its precise referent is not specified. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | What is heavier than lead? What is its name except a fool? | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | Sand, salt, and a lump of iron are easier to bear than a person without understanding. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | A wooden bond fitted into a building will not be loosened in a shaking; so a heart established on thoughtful counsel will not be cowardly when the time comes. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note22:16 The building and settled-heart analogy is preserved; the source does not expressly name an earthquake. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | A heart made firm upon an understanding thought is like a sanded ornament on a polished wall. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note22:17 The architectural finish is difficult; the actual sand and smoothed-wall terms are retained without assuming a particular decorative technique. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | Stakes set on a height will certainly not endure before the wind; so a cowardly heart resting on a foolish thought will certainly not endure before any fear. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | The one who pricks an eye will bring down tears; the one who pricks a heart reveals feeling. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | Throwing a stone at birds drives them away, and the one who reproaches a friend will break up friendship. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. |
Hebrew 22:21 · fragmentary Do not draw a sword against a [fr]iend; do not fear, for there is ransom. Hebrew witness C · C VI Versoאל / [או ]ה ב אל תשלוף חרב אל / [ת]גור כי יש כופר · | If you draw a sword against a friend, do not despair, for there is a way back. | Different · Hebrew 22:21 — C prohibition rather than Greek conditional, ransom כופר rather than return. Classification assesses only the surviving/readable wording, not lost portions. |
Hebrew 22:22 · translated Do not open your mouth against a friend; do not worry, for there is a return. | If you open your mouth against a friend, do not be afraid, for there is reconciliation—except for reproach, pride, disclosure of a secret, and a treacherous blow; at these things every friend will flee. | Different · Hebrew 22:22 — C prohibition rather than Greek conditional. C excerpt lacks Greek list of exceptions. Inherited Greek note22:22 All four exceptions qualify the hope of reconciliation and are retained. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | Establish trust with your neighbor in poverty, so that you may be filled together with him in his good circumstances. Stay with him in a time of affliction, so that you may share his inheritance. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | Before fire come a furnace’s vapor and smoke; so before bloodshed come insults. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | I will not be ashamed to shelter a friend, and I will certainly not hide from his face. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | If evil things happen to me because of him, everyone who hears will guard against him. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note22:26 The negative result from the friend’s conduct remains explicit; the pronouns are not changed to protect the friend’s reputation. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | Who will place a guard upon my mouth and a skillful seal upon my lips, so that I do not fall because of it and my tongue destroy me? | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note22:27 Because of it follows the feminine pronoun, whose connection to the speech organs is compressed. The prayer continues into chapter 23. Verified reception: Augustine, On Grace and Free Will 32, uses this petition for a guarded mouth to explain why the willing person still asks God for help in obeying. [AUG-GRACE] |
Source and numbering
Hebrew English is newly translated from the manuscript-specific transcriptions in The Book of Ben Sira portal. Each translated unit identifies its selected witness and folio. This is a selected-witness working edition, not an exhaustive collation of every manuscript or a reconstruction of lost Hebrew. Brackets and fragmentary status identify uncertainty; no Greek text has been back-translated to fill Hebrew gaps.
The Greek-source English and its notes are inherited from the existing Sirach edition. The comparison categories are provisional editorial assessments against that English; this update is not a fresh verification of every Greek reading or its apparatus.
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.