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Audiobook edition · 3 h 32 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 122 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 122 pagesAbout this book
How do you choose a friend, hold your tongue, and live with honor in a changing world?
Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach, also called Ecclesiasticus, gathers the teachings of a Jerusalem scribe and teacher. Jesus, son of Eleazar, son of Sira, addresses friendship, family, money, work, and prayer. His concern is practical: how to live well among other people, with loyalty, self-control, and care for the poor.
The collection moves from advice on speech and temper to a poem in which Wisdom speaks, then to praise of creation and Israel’s ancestors. According to Sirach, wisdom begins with fearing the Lord and is rooted in the Law of Moses. Early Christians also read the book in worship and teaching.
What you’ll discover
- Friendship worth testing Explore Sirach’s warm but wary counsel on choosing companions and deciding whom to trust.
- Words that carry weight Consider how speech can bring honor or shame, and why restraint matters.
- Daily duties and difficult choices Meet teachings on parents, poverty, money, and work that connect character with everyday responsibilities.
- Wisdom speaks for herself Encounter the central poem where Wisdom speaks and is identified with the Law of Moses.
- Creation and remembered lives Follow hymns of praise through sun, stars, sea creatures, and the great figures of Israel’s past.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who love proverbs, quiet moral reflection and ancient voices that speak plainly about friendship, money, speech and family.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A teacher offers guidance for life
- Wisdom begins with humble awe
- Wisdom makes her home in Israel
- Honour parents and keep pride low
- Trust grows through tested friendship
- Words can protect or wound
- Use wealth for mercy and justice
- A good name outlasts possessions
- Daily habits give wisdom its shape
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Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach
by Attributed to Joshua ben Sira
A Jerusalem scribe teaches how to test a friend, guard the tongue and give to the poor.
Medium level2–5 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”
In short
Picture a teacher in Jerusalem more than two thousand years ago, seated with young men in a house of instruction. He tells them how to test a friend before trusting him, how to set a guard on the mouth, and why a good name outlasts gold.
Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 25 min1 h 55 min fast, 2 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 35,100 words
- Pages
- 122 pages184 in large print
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- about 180 BCby Attributed to Joshua ben Sira
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Listen freeOr hold it in print: paperback, hardcover or large print, at costFrom the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Jerusalem scribe answers the Greek world
The book comes from a particular man in a particular hour. Jesus ben Sirach lived in Jerusalem in the early second century BCE, when Greek rulers and Greek ideas pressed on Jewish life. Some of his neighbours were drifting from the ways of their ancestors in search of status and polish. Ben Sirach answers them with teaching rather than anger.
He runs what he calls a house of instruction, where he trains young men in the art of living well. He does not copy the Greek philosophers, and he does not shut them out. He argues that the wisdom of Israel is itself a philosophy, rooted in the Torah, the Law of Moses. To hold to it is not narrowness but insight into how the world is made.
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A Jerusalem scribe teaches how to test a friend, guard the tongue and give to the poor.
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Details
- Language
- English
- Listening time
- 3 h 32 min
- Level
- Medium level
- Paperback
- 122 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 122 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 184 pages · 8.5 × 11 in
- Large print hardcover
- 184 pages · 8.5 × 11 in
- Delivery and returns
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Cite this edition
Joshua ben Sira. Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-wisdom-of-jesus-ben-sirach.
Joshua ben Sira. (2026). Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-wisdom-of-jesus-ben-sirach (Original work published ca. 180 B.C.E.)
Joshua ben Sira. Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-wisdom-of-jesus-ben-sirach.
@book{joshuabensira2026wisdom,
author = {Joshua ben Sira},
title = {Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-wisdom-of-jesus-ben-sirach},
note = {First published ca. 180 BCE}
}
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What is the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach about?
It is a collection of poems, sayings and prayers on how to live well. Topics include friendship, speech, money, family, pride, health, death and the fear of the Lord, with a closing hymn praising Israel's heroes.
Why is Ecclesiasticus not in most Protestant Bibles?
Protestant churches follow the Hebrew canon, which leaves it out, so they place it among the apocrypha. Catholic and Orthodox churches count it as deuterocanonical and keep it in the Old Testament.
Who wrote Ecclesiasticus and when?
Jesus ben Sirach, a Jerusalem scribe, wrote it in Hebrew most likely between 200 and 175 BCE. His grandson rendered it into Greek in Egypt around 132 BCE.
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