Wisdom of the Old Testament: Humble yourself to the utmost, for the punishment of the ungodly is fire and worms. Ben Sira 7:17
Published on HivePostify by @bernie2002xp · Sat Jun 27 2026
The sapiential book of Ben Sira is an expression of the wisdom of the Old Testament. Ben Sira was probably a Jewish author who lived during the Hellenistic period and left important teachings of wisdom for daily life, which he compiled from his own experience and from the ancient traditions of the Middle East. And Ben Sira began his book by explaining that wisdom is a gift from God, and that the path to her is the spiritual gift of the fear of God ( constancy, firmness, devotion). Ben Sira, as a wise man, presented the fear of God as the path of sensible men. But then Ben Sira remembered that there is a path opposite to wisdom, and that path is a destructive, chaotic, and unjust path. And it is likely that, remembering Cain, who took the life of his brother Abel, he wrote the following truth about this very problematic path: "Do no evil, and no evil will befall you; avoid wickedness, and it will turn away from you" Ben Sira 7:1. In other words, what Ben Sira explained is that there is no happiness, no joy, no spiritual goods for those who embark on the path of error, a message that is constant in all the stories of the Old Testament from Adam and Eve, to the rebellion of the priest Mattatias and his sons during the rule of the successors of Alexander the Great. This is why Ben Sira, after teaching this, left another piece of advice for spiritual reflection and explained: "Humble yourself to the utmost, for the punishment of the ungodly is fire and worms" Ben Sira 7:17. Anyone with common sense understands that there is nothing more destructive than arrogance, because those who cultivate arrogance start arguments and fights at the slightest problem. This is why cultivating humility, the opposite of pride, becomes so necessary, because sometimes the secret to success is not in making a lot of money, but in knowing how to avoid problems. And this is an undeniable truth, because as the wise Ben Sira reminded Bible readers with the example of the ungodly, all people are subject to the law of sowing and reaping. And so just as the humble reap blessing, the ungodly reap destruction.
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Tags: #punishment#wisdom#old#testament#humble