Sirach 52
The writer acknowledges the wisdom and doctrine revealed through the law, prophets, and other books, and notes the importance of being skilled in speaking and writing to convey this knowledge. The writer's grandfather, Jesus, was diligent in reading these texts and also wrote about doctrine and wisdom to help others learn and live according to the law. The writer asks the reader to approach the text with benevolence and attentive study, acknowledging that translation from Hebrew to another language can be imperfect.
1The wisdom of many great things has been revealed to us through the law, and the prophets, and the other books that followed these. Concerning these things, Israel ought to be praised, because of doctrine and wisdom. For it is necessary, not only for those who are speaking, but even for outsiders, to be skillful, both in speaking and in writing, so as to become very learned2My grandfather Jesus, after he gave himself fully to a diligent reading of the law, and the prophets, and the other books that were handed down to us by our ancestors, also wanted to write something himself, about the things that pertain to doctrine and wisdom, so that those who desire to learn and to become skillful in these things would be more and more attentive in mind, and would be strengthened to live according to the law3And so, I exhort you to approach with benevolence, and to perform the reading with attentive study, and to be forbearing in these things when we may seem, while pursuing the image of wisdom, to fall short in the composition of words4For the Hebrew words are deficient when they have been translated into another language.5And not only these words, but also the law itself, and the prophets, and the remainder of the books, have no small difference from when they have been spoken in their own language6For in the time of king Ptolemy Euergetes, in the thirty-eighth year after I had arrived in Egypt, after I had been there for a long time, I found, left behind there, books with a doctrine neither small nor contemptible7And so I considered it to be both good and necessary for me to apply some significant diligence and labor in order to translate this book8Then, after much attentiveness to doctrine over a length of time, I brought to a close the things being considered, so as to offer this book for those who are willing to apply their mind and to learn how they ought to conduct their way of life9for those who have decided to form their life in accord with the law of the Lord
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