Read & explore together
Do not place empty hope in dreams and divination
Sirach 34:1–8 warns against trusting dreams, divination, and false signs. This wisdom passage compares such hope to chasing shadows and wind, and it directs attention instead to what is faithful and true.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
This passage comes from Sirach, a book in the Catholic additional books. In these verses, the writer speaks in wisdom-style sayings about dreams, divination, truth, and wisdom. The passage does not describe an event. It gives warnings and contrasts, moving from empty hope to faithful speech and the law.
Sirach 34:1–8Main takeaway
Sirach 34:1–8 teaches that people should not give their hearts to dreams and divination, but value what is faithful, true, and wise.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Empty hope and foolish confidenceThe passage begins by calling some hopes vain and false. It says dreams can make fools confident, but that confidence is not sound.
Explanation
The passage begins by calling some hopes vain and false. It says dreams can make fools confident, but that confidence is not sound. The warning is aimed at trusting what does not have solid truth behind it. A person without understanding is especially open to this kind of hope.
02Like chasing what cannot be heldSirach uses vivid comparisons. Trusting dreams is like trying to grab a shadow or chase the wind.
Explanation
Sirach uses vivid comparisons. Trusting dreams is like trying to grab a shadow or chase the wind. A dream vision is described as only a reflection, not the thing itself. These pictures stress how uncertain and untouchable dreams are when someone sets their mind on them.
03False sources cannot produce truthThe next sayings ask two sharp questions. If something is unclean, how can it become clean?
Explanation
The next sayings ask two sharp questions. If something is unclean, how can it become clean? If something is false, how can it produce truth? Then the passage groups divinations, soothsayings, and dreams together as vain, showing that the writer is warning against relying on them for guidance.
04Do not give your heart to themVerse 6 allows one exception in its wording: if something is sent in a visitation from the Most High.
Explanation
Verse 6 allows one exception in its wording: if something is sent in a visitation from the Most High. Apart from that, the instruction is plain, do not give your heart to dreams. The passage explains why: dreams have led many astray, and people have failed by putting their hope in them.
05The better path: law and faithful speechThe passage ends with a contrast. Instead of lies and empty hope, it points to the law fulfilled without lying and to wisdom completed in a faithful mouth.
Explanation
The passage ends with a contrast. Instead of lies and empty hope, it points to the law fulfilled without lying and to wisdom completed in a faithful mouth. The closing focus is not on unusual experiences, but on truthfulness, faithfulness, and wisdom in what is spoken.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What comparisons in this passage show that dreams are unreliable guides?
Look for the images of grasping a shadow, following the wind, and seeing only a reflection, and explain what those pictures suggest.
02According to this passage, when should a person refuse to give their heart to dreams?
Notice the warning in verse 6 and the reason given in verse 7 about being led astray and failing through misplaced hope.
03What does the passage place alongside, or over against, dreams and divination at the end?
Pay attention to the final verse and name the positive things it mentions: the law, truthfulness, wisdom, and a faithful mouth.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Sirach 34:1–8
1Vain and false hopes are for a man void of understanding. Dreams give wings to fools.
2As one who grasps at a shadow and follows after the wind, so is he who sets his mind on dreams.
3The vision of dreams is a reflection, the likeness of a face near a face.
4From an unclean thing what can be cleansed? From that which is false what can be true?
5Divinations, and soothsayings, and dreams, are vain. The heart has fantasies like a woman in labor.
6If they are not sent in a visitation from the Most High, don’t give your heart to them.
7For dreams have led many astray. They have failed by putting their hope in them.
8Without lying the law will be fulfilled. Wisdom is complete in a faithful mouth.