04_Reymond_224_246 15/07/14 12:18 Pagina 246 246 ERIC D. REYMOND ing riddles and being linguistically dextrous, the explicit ways he cites some examples of wordplay (“like its name”), as well as his intention of complicating certain concepts (like “glory” and “shame”) that his readers would have taken for granted. Tellingly, imprecision of language continued to be a topic associated with the Wisdom of Ben Sira even after its author’s death. In the preface to his translation, Ben Sira’s grandson implies that he has been unable to accurately communicate certain ideas/phrases of his grand- father’s Hebrew in his Greek translation: “For that which is said in Hebrew, when translated into another language, does not have the same sense (ivsodunamei/)” (Sir Prologue 21-22). Yale Divinity School Eric D. REYMOND 409 Prospect St. New Haven, CT 06511 (USA) SUMMARY This article explores the problems posed by language due to its im- precision, the disparity between what one says (or means to say) and what is interpreted. Ben Sira warns his readers of the dangers posed by the changing contexts of an utterance. Sensitivity to context reflects other as- pects of Ben Sira’s teaching, such as his awareness of people’s differing perspectives. In addition, Ben Sira is concerned that his readers be aware of the multiple meanings behind words due to the polysemous nature of the words themselves, their morphology, and/or how they are used.