Lesson sequence
Sirach 6: Self-indulgent pride consumes its owner
Sirach 6:2–4; Sirach 6:5–17; Sirach 6:18–31; Sirach 6:32–37
Sirach warns that self-exalting pride is not strength. In three sharp images, these verses show a person trusting their own inner counsel, then suffering ruin, emptiness, and disgrace because of that wickedness. This lesson also brings together Test friendship and treasure the faithful friend, Accept wisdom’s discipline and discover her rest, Learn from elders and meditate on the commandments.
Before you teach
This wisdom saying speaks about the inner life. It warns against exalting yourself “in the counsel of your soul” and then describes the outcome with three images: a torn bull, a stripped tree, and a person made a laughing stock to enemies. Each picture shows self-destruction and shame.
Explain the central teaching of Sirach 6: Self-indulgent pride consumes its owner, using two details from the reading. This passage teaches that wicked self-exaltation harms the very person who holds onto it. This passage teaches that friendship should be approached carefully, tested over time, and treasured when it proves faithful. This passage teaches that wisdom requires willing discipline and steady seeking, yet those who hold onto her will find rest, gladness and honour. According to this passage, wisdom is pursued through willingness, listening, staying near the wise, and continual meditation on the Lord’s commandments.
Your lesson sequence
Use the teaching outline below for each session, with these reading and activity choices.
Self-indulgent pride consumes its owner
Sirach 6:2–4
This passage teaches that wicked self-exaltation harms the very person who holds onto it.
Try together: Use the evidence sheet for Sirach 6:2–4. Record key details, compare the opening and closing of this reading, and prepare a short explanation with a supporting Bible reference for each point.
Test friendship and treasure the faithful friend
Sirach 6:5–17
This passage teaches that friendship should be approached carefully, tested over time, and treasured when it proves faithful.
Try together: Use the evidence sheet for Sirach 6:5–17. Record key details, compare the opening and closing of this reading, and prepare a short explanation with a supporting Bible reference for each point.
Accept wisdom’s discipline and discover her rest
Sirach 6:18–31
This passage teaches that wisdom requires willing discipline and steady seeking, yet those who hold onto her will find rest, gladness and honour.
Try together: Use the evidence sheet for Sirach 6:18–31. Record key details, compare the opening and closing of this reading, and prepare a short explanation with a supporting Bible reference for each point.
Learn from elders and meditate on the commandments
Sirach 6:32–37
According to this passage, wisdom is pursued through willingness, listening, staying near the wise, and continual meditation on the Lord’s commandments.
Try together: Use the evidence sheet for Sirach 6:32–37. Record key details, compare the opening and closing of this reading, and prepare a short explanation with a supporting Bible reference for each point.
Welcome: Sirach 6: Self-indulgent pride consumes its owner
5 minIntroduce “Self-indulgent pride consumes its owner”, “Test friendship and treasure the faithful friend”, “Accept wisdom’s discipline and discover her rest”, “Learn from elders and meditate on the commandments” and locate Sirach 6:2–4; Sirach 6:5–17; Sirach 6:18–31; Sirach 6:32–37. This passage teaches that wicked self-exaltation harms the very person who holds onto it. Invite each learner to name a detail or question they will listen for. Choose the reading for today’s session from the sequence above.
Sirach 6:2, Sirach 6:3, Sirach 6:4
Read and explain the passage
12 minSelf-indulgent pride consumes its owner (Sirach 6:2–4): The warning begins with a command: “Don’t exalt yourself in the counsel of your soul”. The focus is on lifting up your own inner counsel. Sirach then gives a fierce picture of the result: your soul being “torn in pieces like a bull”. Pride here is shown as destructive, not secure.
Test friendship and treasure the faithful friend (Sirach 6:5–17): The passage starts by noticing that kind speech affects relationships. “Sweet words” and a “gracious tongue” can increase friends and courtesies. Yet having many peaceful relationships is not the same as trusting many advisers. The text values warmth in speech, while also urging great care about whose counsel we rely on.
Accept wisdom’s discipline and discover her rest (Sirach 6:18–31): The passage begins with a call to gather instruction from youth so that wisdom will still be found in old age. Wisdom is compared to farming: ploughing, sowing and waiting for fruit. That picture shows effort and patience, yet it also says the labour will not be endless, because the fruit will come.
Learn from elders and meditate on the commandments (Sirach 6:32–37): The first words make willingness central. “If you are willing, you will be instructed” connects learning with readiness, not force. “If you will yield your soul, you will be prudent” adds an inward response. The passage presents prudence as linked with a person who opens himself to instruction.
Read the selected verses together, pausing at “Self-indulgent pride consumes its owner”, “Test friendship and treasure the faithful friend”, “Accept wisdom’s discipline and discover her rest”, “Learn from elders and meditate on the commandments”. Use the source reading below and check the explanation against the words of the passage.
Sirach 6:2, Sirach 6:5, Sirach 6:6, Sirach 6:18, Sirach 6:19, Sirach 6:32
Discuss the details and their meaning
8 minUse the three questions below. Begin with “What does it mean to “exalt yourself in the counsel of your soul”?” and allow time to find the supporting verses. According to this passage, wisdom is pursued through willingness, listening, staying near the wise, and continual meditation on the Lord’s commandments. Ask learners to explain which details support their answer and to identify a question they would like to explore further.
Sirach 6:2, Sirach 6:24, Sirach 6:25, Sirach 6:29, Sirach 6:31, Sirach 6:32, Sirach 6:33
Make and respond: Wisdom comparison cards
12 minWork on “Sirach 6: Self-indulgent pride consumes its owner: Wisdom comparison cards”. Follow the materials and steps below, using “Self-indulgent pride consumes its owner”, “Test friendship and treasure the faithful friend”, “Accept wisdom’s discipline and discover her rest”, “Learn from elders and meditate on the commandments” as reading headings. Each learner should include at least two accurate details and their verse references. Share one observation from the finished sheet and explain how it connects with the central teaching.
Sirach 6:2, Sirach 6:20, Sirach 6:37
Closing: return to Learn from elders and meditate on the commandments
3 minRevisit Sirach 6:32–37. Invite a learner to summarise what the group has learned about Learn from elders and meditate on the commandments and another to support the summary with a verse. Give learners a moment to complete their response sheet. They can share a question or, if appropriate for the group, join the optional prayer.
Sirach 6:32, Sirach 6:35, Sirach 6:37
Questions to explore
What does it mean to “exalt yourself in the counsel of your soul”?
Use the wording of the verse to explain that Sirach warns about lifting up your own inner counsel.
Sirach 6:2
What changes in the description of wisdom’s chains and bonds by the end of the passage?
Compare the earlier burden imagery with the later pictures of strength, glory, a robe and a crown.
Sirach 6:24, Sirach 6:25, Sirach 6:29, Sirach 6:31
What repeated “if” statements show that learning wisdom involves a personal response?
Notice how willingness, yielding, loving to hear, and inclining the ear are all choices named in the passage.
Sirach 6:32, Sirach 6:33
Make, think or respond
Sirach 6: Self-indulgent pride consumes its owner: Wisdom comparison cards
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pencils or pens
- a Bible or the source reading on this page
Try it together
- Fold a sheet into three panels or draw three columns. Label them “What the passage commends”, “What it warns against”, “The reason or outcome stated”.
- Read Sirach 6:2–4; Sirach 6:5–17; Sirach 6:18–31; Sirach 6:32–37. Use “Self-indulgent pride consumes its owner”, “Test friendship and treasure the faithful friend”, “Accept wisdom’s discipline and discover her rest”, “Learn from elders and meditate on the commandments” as your reading headings and add a short quotation or detail with its verse reference to each panel.
- Compare your notes with a partner. Check that every quotation is accurate and every conclusion has support in the passage.
- Write a proposed everyday example beside one teaching. Label it as your example and explain which words in the text guided it.
The finished sheet keeps the details of Sirach 6: Self-indulgent pride consumes its owner connected to their Bible references and gives the group a way to explain what they noticed.
Adapt for your group
- For learners who need more support, prepare the reading headings “Self-indulgent pride consumes its owner”, “Test friendship and treasure the faithful friend”, “Accept wisdom’s discipline and discover her rest”, “Learn from elders and meditate on the commandments” and let them match short quotations to the correct heading.
- For confident readers, compare two sections of Sirach 6:2–4; Sirach 6:5–17; Sirach 6:18–31; Sirach 6:32–37. Ask for a written explanation with two supporting references and one question that the text leaves open.
An optional closing prayer
“God, help us listen carefully as we read Sirach 6:2–4; Sirach 6:5–17; Sirach 6:18–31; Sirach 6:32–37. Help us understand what we have read, ask thoughtful questions and respond with care for others. Amen.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Sirach 6
2 Don’t exalt yourself in the counsel of your soul, that your soul not be torn in pieces like a bull.
3 You will eat up your leaves, destroy your fruit, and leave yourself like a dry tree.
4 A wicked soul will destroy him who has it, and will make him a laughing stock to his enemies.
5 Sweet words will multiply a man’s friends. A gracious tongue will multiply courtesies.
6 Let those that are at peace with you be many, but your advisers one of a thousand.
7 If you want to gain a friend, get him in a time of testing, and don’t be in a hurry to trust him.
8 For there is a friend just for an occasion. He won’t continue in the day of your affliction.
9 And there is a friend who turns into an enemy. He will discover strife to your reproach.
10 And there is a friend who is a companion at the table, but he won’t continue in the day of your affliction.
11 In your prosperity he will be as yourself, and will be bold over your servants.
12 If you are brought low, he will be against you, and will hide himself from your face.
13 Separate yourself from your enemies, and beware of your friends.
14 A faithful friend is a strong defense. He who has found him has found a treasure.
15 There is nothing that can be taken in exchange for a faithful friend. His excellency is beyond price.
16 A faithful friend is a life-saving medicine. Those who fear the Lord will find him.
17 He who fears the Lord directs his friendship properly; for as he is, so is his neighbor also.
18 My son, gather instruction from your youth up. Even when you have gray hair you will find wisdom.
19 Come to her as one who plows and sows and wait for her good fruit; for your toil will be little in her cultivation, and you will soon eat of her fruit.
20 How exceedingly harsh she is to the unlearned! He who is without understanding will not remain in her.
21 She will rest upon him as a mighty stone of trial. He won’t hesitate to cast her from him.
22 For wisdom is according to her name. She isn’t manifest to many.
23 Give ear, my son, and accept my judgment. Don’t refuse my counsel.
24 Bring your feet into her fetters, and your neck into her chain.
25 Put your shoulder under her and bear her. Don’t be grieved with her bonds.
26 Come to her with all your soul. Keep her ways with your whole power.
27 Search and seek, and she will be made known to you. When you get hold of her, don’t let her go.
28 For at the last you will find her rest; and she will be turned for you into gladness.
29 Her fetters will be to you for a covering of strength, and her chains for a robe of glory.
30 For there is a golden ornament upon her, and her bands are a purple cord.
31 You shall put her on as a robe of glory, and shall put her on as a crown of rejoicing.
32 My son, if you are willing, you will be instructed. If you will yield your soul, you will be prudent.
33 If you love to hear, you will receive. If you incline your ear, you will be wise.
34 Stand in the multitude of the elders. Attach yourself to whomever is wise.
35 Be willing to listen to every godly discourse. Don’t let the proverbs of understanding escape you.
36 If you see a man of understanding, get to him early. Let your foot wear out the steps of his doors.
37 Let your mind dwell on the ordinances of the Lord and meditate continually on his commandments. He will establish your heart and your desire for wisdom will be given to you.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.