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While Ben Sira’s poem on wisdom and fear of God (Sir 1:11–21) draws on earlier texts from the Hebrew Bible, it transfers the rewards for wisdom (Prov 1–9) and the blessings for Torah obedience (Deut 30:15–16) onto the fear of the Lord. The poem also exhibits parallels to some Dead Sea Scroll texts, including the Qumran Wisdom Admonition (4Q185) and the Treatise on the Two Spirits from the Community Rule (1QS III, 13–IV, 26). Since Sir 1:14 teaches that wisdom has been given in the womb to the faithful Jews, the “eternal foundation” (1:15) may be a reference to the Jerusalem temple.

Despite the differences between the Priestly creation story in Genesis 1 and the Yahwist’s creation narrative in Genesis 2–3, several Second Temple period Jewish texts began to harmonize both accounts. Ben Sira (Sirach) makes selective use of both Genesis creation stories, especially when referring to human mortality. While Sirach 25:24 implies an allusion to sin and death entering the world through Eve, Sirach 17:1–2 appears to pass over the primeval sin and instead seems to regard human mortality as a natural disposition by the Creator who providentially allots humanity a fixed number of days of earthly life. Like some interpretations of Genesis 3 within early Judaism and Christianity, emphasizing human mortality as deriving from the primeval sin, Ben Sira echoes the primeval punishment of humanity (Genesis 3:19) by employing the verb ‘return’ in Sirach 17:1. Thereafter, Sirach 17:2 follows Jewish sapiential reflection (especially Psalm 90) and Stoic teaching to present death as something natural within God’s providential plan.