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Wisdom of Ben Sira 10:5-7
New Catholic Bible
Wisdom of Ben Sira 10:5-7
New Catholic Bible
5 All human success is also in the hand of God;
it is he who confers honor upon the lawgiver.[a]
The Sin of Pride[b]
6 Do not become angry at every offense committed by your neighbor,
and do not resort to acts of violence.
7 Arrogance is hateful in the sight of both the Lord and man,
and injustice is abhorrent to both.
Footnotes
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 10:5 Lawgiver: Hebrew; Greek reads: “scribe.”
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 10:6 The author repeats this time after time: the supreme sin is to want to put oneself above the Creator and to despise human solidarity. Nothing is more intolerable, and it is to reestablish the order of things that God punishes the proud. The sage is evidently thinking of the examples from the political life of his day, which was filled with the succession of rival dynasties (v. 8) and the collapse of more than one pretentious regime (vv. 16-20). This passage reminds us of the canticle of Hannah (1 Sam 2:4-8), which inspired the Magnificat (Lk 1:46-52).
