01_Biblica_1_F_Gregory_Layout 1 05/11/12 12:13 Pagina 333 333 SLIPS OF THE TONGUE IN THE SPEECH ETHICS OF BEN SIRA ishment is for six months (1QS 7.2-3) 26. These respective punish- ments imply that such a slip is culpable, but less so 27. Thus, here Ben Sira addresses the possibility that someone has said something which requires reproof. Ben Sira advises his stu- dents that it is possible that the person in question has said some- thing that is culpable and foolish, but that it may well have been a slip of the tongue. While slips such as these are still culpable, the logic of the argument suggests that they are less so than intentional speech sins. As such, the recognition of their universality should engender empathy when dealing with such a person. Hence, ac- cording to the following verse, reproving such a person should be done all the more out of compassion rather than anger. 3. A Slip of the Tongue as Saying Something Contemptible (Sir 23,13-15) A third place where the idea of a “slip of the tongue” appears is in the situation described in Sir 23,7-15, a passage in which only v. 11a-b has survived in the Hebrew. In a lesson on controlled speech to his students Ben Sira asserts that it is sinners and the arrogant who are overtaken by their own mouths (23,8), while those who submit themselves to Ben Sira’s instruction will not be “ensnared” by their lips (23,7). These statements are in substantial continuity with the outlook in Proverbs (e.g. 12,18). However, later in the lesson Ben Sira mentions an accidental speech sin, though the specific vocabu- lary of slipping or stumbling found elsewhere is not present. Let not your mouth be accustomed to a lack of discipline 28; for in it is sinful speech. 26 In P inadvertence ([‫ )שגג]ה‬was a mitigating factor generally (Lev 5,18; Num 15,24-29) and in both P and D there is a distinction between accidental manslaughter and intentional murder (Num 35,10-16; Deut 4,41-43; 19,1- 13). In 1QS 7.2-3 the sectarians appear to have extended the same kind of legal reasoning to the realm of speech ethics, analogously to Ben Sira. 27 Another reference to a slip of the tongue in the Dead Sea Scrolls is found in 4QBeatitudes 14 ii 26-27. Though fragmentary, the context of such a slip (‫ )מתקל‬connects it with becoming trapped (line 27) and possibly with “inappropriate words” (line 28). 28 The word “avpaideusi,a” has been translated “a lack of discipline” (cf. 4,25; 21,19.24; LXX Hos 7,16), but the adjective “avsurh,j” (“lewd”) has been