Read & explore together
Steady speech protects friendship and reputation
This wisdom passage warns against unstable speech. It links double-tongued words with shame, but it also shows a better way: steady understanding, careful listening, patient answers, and silence when a person does not know what to say.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
In these verses from Sirach, the writer gives a sequence of short sayings about speech, understanding, and relationships. The passage stays in wisdom teaching, not story. It moves from warning against changeable and double speech to urging steadiness, patient listening, careful answering, and the protection of friendship and reputation.
Sirach 5:9–6:1Main takeaway
Steady, patient, truthful speech helps protect both friendship and a person’s good name.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Unstable words show divided speechThe passage begins with two pictures: winnowing with every wind and walking in every path.
Explanation
The passage begins with two pictures: winnowing with every wind and walking in every path. Both suggest instability and lack of direction. Sirach applies this to “the sinner who has a double tongue”, meaning speech that is inconsistent, divided, or unreliable rather than steady and trustworthy.
02Steadfast understanding shapes consistent speechThe next instruction is positive. A person is told to be steadfast in understanding and to keep speech consistent.
Explanation
The next instruction is positive. A person is told to be steadfast in understanding and to keep speech consistent. Then comes a practical pattern: be quick to hear and patient in answering. In this passage, wise speech is not hasty talk. It grows out of steady thinking and careful listening.
03Knowing when to speak and when to be silentSirach gives a simple test. If you have understanding, answer your neighbour; but if not, put your hand over your mouth.
Explanation
Sirach gives a simple test. If you have understanding, answer your neighbour; but if not, put your hand over your mouth. The point is not silence in every case, but restraint when understanding is lacking. Speech is treated as weighty, because talk can bring either honour or disgrace.
04Careless talk brings shame and breaks friendshipThe warning becomes sharper: do not be known as a whisperer or use the tongue like a trap.
Explanation
The warning becomes sharper: do not be known as a whisperer or use the tongue like a trap. Double speech brings shame and condemnation. The next line adds, “Don’t be ignorant in a great or small matter”, which fits the earlier call for understanding, patient answers, and silence when needed. If this wisdom is ignored, a person may become an enemy instead of a friend and gain an evil name marked by shame and reproach.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What pictures in the opening verse help describe unstable speech?
Look at the images of wind and many paths, and then notice how Sirach explains them with the phrase “double tongue”.
02According to this passage, what should come before answering someone?
Notice the order: steadfast understanding, swift hearing, patient answering, and silence if understanding is lacking.
03How does Sirach connect speech with friendship and reputation?
Trace the words about glory, dishonour, downfall, shame, reproach, friend, and enemy, and include the warning not to be ignorant in matters great or small.
Read the Bible passages
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Sirach 5:9–15
9Don’t winnow with every wind. Don’t walk in every path. This is what the sinner who has a double tongue does.
10Be steadfast in your understanding. Let your speech be consistent.
11Be swift to hear and answer with patience.
12If you have understanding, answer your neighbor; but if not, put your hand over your mouth.
13Glory and dishonor is in talk. A man’s tongue may be his downfall.
14Don’t be called a whisperer. Don’t lie in wait with your tongue; for shame is on the thief, and an evil condemnation is on him who has a double tongue.
15Don’t be ignorant in a great or small matter.
Sirach 6:1
1Don’t become an enemy instead of a friend; for an evil name will inherit shame and reproach. So it is with the sinner who has a double tongue.