Other kings and prophets
1 The memory of Josiah is like blend ed incense carefully prepared by the perfumer; it is like delicious honey to every mouth, like music during a banquet.
2 He followed the right way in converting the people and removing the horror of idolatry.
3 He set his heart on the Lord and succeeded in having godliness prevail over wickedness.
4 With the exception of David, Heze kiah and Josiah, the kings were very sinful men. They abandoned the Law of the Most High bringing an end to the kings of Judah.
5 They surrendered their power and their honor to foreign nations.
6 Their enemies set fire to the holy city, making its streets desolate
7 as Jeremiah had foretold.
8 It was Ezekiel who saw the vision of Glory when the Lord showed it to him above the chariot of the cherubim.
9 He also remembered Job, the one who al ways followed the way of justice.
10 As for the twelve prophets, may their bones spring to life from the tomb, for they comforted the people of Jacob and saved them with confident hope.
11 Can we ever adequately praise Zerub babel who was like a ring at the finger of God, and
12 likewise Joshua, son of Jozadak? They were men who, in their days, built the Temple to the Lord, a sanctuary destined for everlasting glory.
13 Lasting too is the memory of Ne he miah, who rebuilt our ruined walls, provided gates and bars and rebuilt our homes.
14 No one on earth was created to equal Enoch for he was taken up from the earth.
15 And never was there a man like Joseph, the greatest among his brothers, the leader of his people; his bones were honored.
16 Shem and Seth were exalted among men, but Adam’s glory was great er than any other living being.
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Comments Sirach, Chapter 49
• 49.16 Suddenly, before praising the high priest Si mon, his contemporary, Ben Sira remembers origins. In the beginning, the first man. Surpassing the current ideas of the Jews who, until then, did not look much further than their own his tory, Ben Sira thinks about the first human, the father of all humanity. Adam represents all sin ful humanity, called to salvation. He is the first human also, who bears in himself the destiny of all the rest. In Romans 5:12-20, Paul will speak of Christ as the New Adam. Of him one can say: “Adam is above every living being.”