ESTUDIO DEL CAPÍTULO
Sirach 5 — Warnings Against Presumption and Double-Tongued Speech
Sirach 5 warns against trusting wealth, presuming on divine mercy, and using a double-tongued mouth, urging steadiness, careful speech, and prompt repentance.
Escritura
- 1.Precepts for Everyday Living Do not set your heart on your wealth, nor say, “I have enough.”
- 2.Do not follow your inclination and strength, walking according to the desires of your heart.
- 3.Do not say, “Who will have power over me?” for the Lord will surely punish you.
- 4.Do not say, “I sinned, and what happened to me?” for the Lord is slow to anger.
- 5.Do not be so confident of atonement that you add sin to sin.
- 6.Do not say, “His mercy is great, he will forgive the multitude of my sins,” for both mercy and wrath are with him, and his anger rests on sinners.
- 7.Do not delay to turn to the Lord, nor postpone it from day to day; for suddenly the wrath of the Lord will go forth, and at the time of punishment you will perish.
- 8.Do not depend on dishonest wealth, for it will not benefit you in the day of calamity.
- 9.Do not winnow with every wind, nor follow every path: the double-tongued sinner does that.
- 10.Be steadfast in your understanding, and let your speech be consistent.
- 11.Be quick to hear, and be deliberate in answering.
- 12.If you have understanding, answer your neighbor; but if not, put your hand on your mouth.
- 13.Glory and dishonor come from speaking, and a man’s tongue is his downfall.
- 14.Do not be called a slanderer, and do not lie in ambush with your tongue; for shame comes to the thief, and severe condemnation to the double-tongued.
- 15.In great and small matters do not act amiss, and do not become an enemy instead of a friend;
Qué significa este pasaje
The opening lines (vv. 1–8) address the inner posture toward wealth and toward God. Sirach forbids saying "I have enough," forbids following the heart's desire as if no one rules, and forbids saying "I sinned, and what happened to me?" The premise behind each warning is that the Lord is patient but will surely punish, and that mercy and wrath are both present with him (v. 6). The danger is not merely the act of sinning but the reasoning that surrounds it: calculating that atonement is certain enough to add more sin (v. 5), or stretching mercy into permission (v. 6). Verse 7 makes the temporal point — sudden wrath can come, and the day of punishment is the wrong time to first turn to the Lord.
The second block (vv. 9–15) shifts from the heart to the mouth. "Do not winnow with every wind" (v. 9) and "Be steadfast in your understanding, and let your speech be consistent" (v. 10) frame the issue as consistency: the double-tongued person shifts with every breeze, but the prudent person holds one settled course. Verses 11–14 press the practical point — be quick to hear, deliberate to answer, silent when one has nothing sound to say — because "a man's tongue is his downfall" (v. 13) and shame or severe condemnation comes to the slanderer and the double-tongued (v. 14).
Verse 15 closes the chapter by widening speech into conduct: "do not act amiss" in great or small matters, and do not let a careless word turn a friend into an enemy. Read together, the chapter treats wealth, mercy, and speech as a single test: does the person rely on what they control (money, reputation, cleverness) or on the Lord whose patience is real but not unlimited? Sirach's answer is to flee presumption, flee the double tongue, and turn to the Lord without delay.
Contexto
The provided chapter note simply identifies Sirach 5 as part of the backfilled material from the book outside its P0/P1 priority range. No additional chapter-level commentary, full-chapter surrounding text, cross-references, or original-language word entries were supplied, so the context for this page is limited to the fifteen verses themselves. Within those verses the internal logic moves from the heart (vv. 1–8) to the mouth (vv. 9–15), and the closing verse (v. 15) ties conduct and speech together.
Preguntas frecuentes
Why does Sirach 5 forbid saying "I have enough" if wealth itself is not condemned in Proverbs?
The warning in verse 1 targets the inner posture, not the possession. Saying "I have enough" treats wealth as a self-sufficient security, which verse 8 then exposes as unreliable "in the day of calamity." The danger is the conclusion drawn from the wealth, not the wealth as such.
Is Sirach 5 contradicting itself by warning both against delaying repentance (v. 7) and against presuming on atonement (v. 5)?
There is no contradiction once the two warnings are distinguished. Verse 7 addresses the procrastinator who keeps delaying repentance; verse 5 addresses the one who repents in form but plans to keep sinning because atonement feels guaranteed. Both abuses assume a future mercy while acting against it now.
What is the "double-tongued sinner" that verse 9 describes?
Verses 9–14 build a portrait. The double-tongued person "winnows with every wind" (v. 9), lacks consistent speech (v. 10), and becomes a slanderer whose tongue causes his own downfall (vv. 13–14). The term covers anyone whose words shift to suit the listener rather than reflect a settled mind.