01_Biblica_1_F_Gregory_Layout 1 05/11/12 12:13 Pagina 331 331 SLIPS OF THE TONGUE IN THE SPEECH ETHICS OF BEN SIRA This pericope on reproof is frequently understood as an adapta- tion of Lev 19,17, which also follows a warning against gossip/slan- der and says, “You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself” (NRSV) 22. The overall situation in vv. 13-17 concerns an array of possible scenarios, all of which take as their point of departure the circulation of rumors. Ben Sira discusses a situation in which he has heard something about a friend or neighbor and points out that this person may or may not have done it; in addition, even if he did, he may have done it unintentionally. Given these varied possibilities, Ben Sira strongly advises avoiding entanglement in such gossip; in- stead, the matter should be taken up directly with the person at the center of such rumors. In order to outline the possibilities of the situation, vv. 13-17 are structured with a four-fold repetition of the command “reprove” and the alternating objects of “friend” (vv. 13, 15) and “neighbor” (vv. 14, 17). These four verses are guided by the goal of discovering whether or not the companion did what he is alleged to have done. Yet, the disruption of the pattern in v. 16 serves to focus attention on this bicolon 23. Jeremy Corley notes that by beginning v. 16 with the phrase “there is [someone]” Ben Sira employs a manner of speaking commonly used in sapiential literature for a “general ob- servation of the world and human behavior” 24. This universal phe- nomenon is described as a “slip” (the Greek again has ovlisqa,nw; the Syriac has “stumble”), which in light of the next line must be a slip of the tongue. Furthermore, Ben Sira clarifies that this “slip” is unintentional (idiomatic for ouvk avpo. yuch/j; similarly Syriac; cf. the similar idiom in Lam 3,33). Because v. 16 follows v. 15, it is possible that the slip refers to something slanderous that has slipped out about the friend or neigh- bor, i.e. the slander constitutes the slip. However, the appeal to em- pathy in the following line would then be difficult to explain. Instead 22 See CORLEY, Ben Sira’s Teaching on Friendship, 172; J. KUGEL, “On Hidden Hatred and Open Reproach: Early Exegesis of Leviticus 19:17”, HTR 80 (1987) 47-49. 23 J. CRENSHAW, “The Book of Sirach”, The New Interpreter’s Bible (ed. L.E. KECK) (Nashville, TN 1997) V, 736. 24 CORLEY, Ben Sira’s Teaching on Friendship, 168.