04_Reymond_224_246 15/07/14 12:18 Pagina 230 230 ERIC D. REYMOND The passage is problematic for several reasons. First, in verse 22b, the Hebrew participles presumably represent the original sense (something reflected in the Syriac), despite the fact that the Greek aorist indicatives imply finite forms (“he speaks abominable [things] and they justify him”) 11. In 22c, the text is corrupt as al- most all commentators agree. The mistaken introduction of the word “stumbles” in place of “one who speaks” (rbdm) is perhaps influenced by the preceding verse (13,21) which uses the Qal and Niphal forms of the verb jwm. The repetition of the syllable [g to indicate an inarticulate sound is not found elsewhere in Hebrew, but is suggested by the noun [wg[g (which is apparently related to the verb h[g “to low”). The Syriac, whose translation of the entire colon parallels the Hebrew text of Ms A, contains the etymologi- cally related gw‘ (= “interjection of disgust and contempt” [LS3]). The Greek, on the other hand, presumes the verb r[g “to rebuke” 12. The last word of 13,22c is presumably a mistake for waXy “they lift”, in the sense of lifting the voice; the verb occurs in this sense without a word for “voice” in Isa 3,7; 42,2.11. In 22d, lykXm may indicate a kind of text, though it is conceivable we should see this as a Hiphil participle referring to a person, similar to how the word ap- pears elsewhere in Ben Sira, and translate “(as) one wise”. By con- trast, both the Greek (su,nesij) and Syriac (dšpyr) imply an abstract word akin to the following bicolon’s lkX or something more generic like bwj, hpy, or dsx 13. Despite the corrupt and somewhat obscure text, the verse seems to imply that the interpretation of speech (and more broadly language) is influenced by who says it. That is, the context of who says something influences the interpreta- tion of the words: An utterance is more likely to be believed if spoken by a member of the wealthy elite than if spoken by a poor person. The disparity between what is said and how it is evaluated is highlighted through the juxtaposition of antonymous participles in 22b. In addition, notice that what the rich person says in 22b is 11 For r[wkm, cf. Sir 11,2. For a similar syntax, cf. 2 Sam 13,31. For more on this verse, see LÉVI, L’Ecclésiastique, 2:97, and W.T. VAN PEURSEN, The Verbal System in the Hebrew Text of Ben Sira (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics 41; Leiden 2004) 349. 12 See M.Z. SEGAL, Sefer Ben Sira (Jerusalem 1953) 86. 13 See the Syriac translation to Sir 3,31; 14,16; 37,11; M.M. WINTER, A Concordance to the Peshiṭta Version of Ben Sira (Monographs of the Peshiṭta Institute Leiden 2; Leiden 1976) 632.