Read & explore together
Health and gladness outweigh unused riches
Sirach 30:14–25 says health and gladness are worth more than great riches. Through plain contrasts and strong images, it warns that sorrow and harmful attitudes can drain life instead of helping it.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
This wisdom passage moves in order from health and wealth, to joy and suffering, to images of things that bring no benefit when they cannot really be received. It ends with direct counsel about sorrow, cheerfulness, envy, wrath and anxiety.
Sirach 30:14–25Main takeaway
Sirach 30:14–25 teaches that health and gladness are greater than unused riches, and that a person should not deliberately surrender to destructive sorrow.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Health outranks wealthThe passage begins by comparing two people: one poor but healthy, the other rich but physically afflicted.
Explanation
The passage begins by comparing two people: one poor but healthy, the other rich but physically afflicted. Sirach judges the healthy poor person better. It then repeats the point with different words, saying health, fitness and bodily strength are better than gold or limitless wealth.
02Joy of heart is named as true wealthSirach adds that no wealth is better than health of body, and no gladness is higher than joy of heart.
Explanation
Sirach adds that no wealth is better than health of body, and no gladness is higher than joy of heart. The next saying speaks strongly of bitter life, continual sickness, death and rest. In this passage, the forceful wording underlines how weighty suffering can be.
03Some good things cannot be enjoyedVerses 18 to 20 use comparisons to show blocked benefit. Food placed before a closed mouth or on a grave does no good.
Explanation
Verses 18 to 20 use comparisons to show blocked benefit. Food placed before a closed mouth or on a grave does no good. An idol cannot eat or smell an offering. The final comparison continues the same idea: desire or provision may be present, yet no enjoyment follows.
04Do not hand yourself over to sorrowThe closing verses give direct instruction. Sirach says not to give your soul to sorrow or afflict yourself deliberately.
Explanation
The closing verses give direct instruction. Sirach says not to give your soul to sorrow or afflict yourself deliberately. Gladness, cheerfulness and comfort are linked with life and benefit, while sorrow, envy, wrath and anxiety are described as damaging and unprofitable.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What does Sirach place above riches at the start of the passage?
Trace the repeated contrasts between health, bodily strength, gold and great wealth.
02What shared point links the images in verses 18 to 20?
Look for how each image describes something present that still brings no real benefit.
03Which attitudes are rejected, and which are encouraged, in the final verses?
List the negative and positive words, then note the outcomes attached to them.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Sirach 30:14–25
14Better is a poor man who is healthy and fit, than a rich man who is afflicted in his body.
15Health and fitness are better than all gold, and a strong body better than wealth without measure.
16There is no wealth better than health of body. There is no gladness above the joy of the heart.
17Death is better than a bitter life, and eternal rest than a continual sickness.
18Good things poured out upon a mouth that is closed are like food offerings laid upon a grave.
19What does an offering profit an idol? For it can’t eat or smell. So is he who is punished by the Lord,
20seeing with his eyes and groaning, like a eunuch embracing a virgin and groaning.
21Don’t give your soul to sorrow. Don’t afflict yourself deliberately.
22Gladness of heart is the life of a man. Cheerfulness of a man lengthens his days.
23Love your own soul, and comfort your heart. Remove sorrow far from you, for sorrow has destroyed many, and there is no profit in it.
24Envy and wrath shorten life. Anxiety brings old age before its time.
25Those who are cheerful and merry will benefit from their food.