04_Reymond_224_246 15/07/14 12:18 Pagina 237 THE WISDOM OF WORDS 237 Syriac translations but also by the expectations of the parallelism where the first command (a reflexive notion) is likely echoed in the second command (at the beginning of the second colon) and the first negative result is likely echoed in the second negative result (a passive notion) 28. However, the verb could be construed in both cola as reflexive: “do not be forward lest you make yourself distant and do not make yourself distant lest you be hated”. Although a single instance of this verb form would imply this ambiguity, by repeating the word Ben Sira highlights the ambiguity and forces the reader/listener to recognize it and, thus, to confront the difficulty of interacting with superiors. In other cases the repetition of a word in different meanings points to a re-evaluation of a basic assumption. An example is found in 40,29 (Mas and Ms B) where the word “life” is repeated: “As for the person always attentive at a stranger’s table, / one can- not count his life (wyY"x;) a life (~yYIx;)” 29. Ben Sira is here playing on the different notions of “life”: the span of time one is alive and “happiness … consisting of earthly felicity” (BDB, s.v.). In addi- tion, it would seem, given the topic of the verse, he is also playing with the rarer meaning “sustenance” (found in Prov 27,27; Sir 29,21; 31,27; 39,26), implying that a sycophant’s sustenance is not truly sustaining 30. Other examples of a similar kind of shift in meaning are also found, like “The wisdom (hmkx) of the scribe in- creases wisdom (hmkx)” (Sir 38,24), and “If you fall (lpn), he will not fall (lpn) to rescue you” (Sir 12,15), though these may not re- present Ben Sira’s original language. 28 See E.D. REYMOND, “Wordplay in the Hebrew to Ben Sira”, The Texts and Versions of the Book of Ben Sira (eds. J.-S. REY – J. JOOSTEN) (SJSJ 150; Leiden 2011) 37-53, here 43. The Greek has avpwsqh|j/ (the subj. aorist passive of avpwqe,w “lest you be pushed back”) and makra.n avfi,stw (“go far off”), while the Syriac repeats the verb rḥq, first (one assumes) in the tA-stem (“be removed”) and then in the tD-stem (“to go far away”). 29 The translation “attentive” for l[ xygXm is based on the usage of the verb in post-biblical Hebrew, as well as on the Greek translation (ble,pwn eivj [see LSJ, s.v., def. II.2]), the Syriac translation (sbr ‘l), and the custom of guests serving food and drink implied in Sir 29,24-27. See E.D. REYMOND, Even unto a Spark. An Analysis of the Parallelistic Structure in the Wisdom of Ben Sira 40,11 – 44,15 (Ph.D. diss.; Chicago, IL 1999) 142-143. 30 For more on this meaning of the word “life”, see E.D. REYMOND, “The Meanings of ‘Life’ in the Hebrew to Ben Sira”, JBL 132 (2013) 327-332.