Read & explore together
Revealing secrets breaks a friendship’s trust
This wisdom passage warns that sharing a person’s secrets can break trust in a way that is hard to repair. It speaks plainly about friendship, loyalty, and the serious damage caused by careless speech.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
Sirach is part of the Catholic additional books, and this short passage presents wisdom sayings about friendship and trust. In these verses, the speaker addresses the effect of revealing secrets and uses comparisons to show how deeply a friendship can be harmed.
Sirach 27:16–21Main takeaway
According to this passage, revealing a friend’s secrets destroys trust and can end a friendship in a way that is very hard to restore.
Look closely at the words
01Secrets and trust belong togetherThe passage begins with a direct warning: revealing secrets destroys trust. The result is relational, not merely personal embarrassment.
Explanation
The passage begins with a direct warning: revealing secrets destroys trust. The result is relational, not merely personal embarrassment. The one who exposes what was private “will not find a close friend”, showing that trust is central to close friendship.
02Love means keeping faithNext, the text gives a positive instruction as well as a warning. To love a friend includes keeping faith with that person.
Explanation
Next, the text gives a positive instruction as well as a warning. To love a friend includes keeping faith with that person. In this passage, keeping faith stands opposite to revealing secrets. If someone betrays that confidence, the friendship cannot simply continue as before.
03Broken friendship is pictured as lossSirach then compares this betrayal to destroying an enemy and to releasing a bird from the hand.
Explanation
Sirach then compares this betrayal to destroying an enemy and to releasing a bird from the hand. These comparisons stress finality. Once the secret is exposed, the neighbour is gone, and the lost closeness cannot simply be taken back whenever someone wants it again.
04Some hurts heal, but this one is severeThe final sayings deepen the warning. The neighbour is described as far away, like a gazelle escaped from a snare.
Explanation
The final sayings deepen the warning. The neighbour is described as far away, like a gazelle escaped from a snare. Then the passage contrasts other injuries with this one: a wound may be bandaged and abuse may be followed by reconciliation, but revealing secrets is described as “without hope”.
Questions to explore
01What does this passage say is destroyed when secrets are revealed?
Look for the repeated link between secrets, trust, and friendship rather than focusing only on embarrassment.
02How does the command to “love a friend” shape the meaning of friendship here?
The text explains love in terms of keeping faith, so consider what loyalty looks like in these verses.
03Which picture most strongly shows the difficulty of restoring the friendship, and why?
Compare the bird released from the hand, the gazelle escaping the snare, and the contrast with a wound that may be bound up.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Sirach 27:16–21
16He who reveals secrets destroys trust, and will not find a close friend.
17Love a friend, and keep faith with him; but if you reveal his secrets, you shall not follow him;
18for as a man has destroyed his enemy, so you have destroyed the friendship of your neighbor.
19As a bird which you have released out of your hand, so you have let your neighbor go, and you will not catch him again.
20Don’t pursue him, for he has gone far away, and has escaped like a gazelle out of the snare.
21For a wound may be bound up, and after abuse there may be reconciliation; but he who reveals secrets is without hope.