If a skillful man hear a wise word, he will commend it, and add to it: but as soon as one of no understanding hears it, it displeases him, and he casts it behind his back.
All Commentaries on Wisdom of Sirach 21:15 Go To Wisdom of Sirach 21
Rufinus of Aquileia
AD 411
"Benjamin, ravenous wolf, still eating by morning and by evening dividing the food. All these are the twelve sons of Jacob, and the words their father said to them as he blessed them. Each according to his blessing, he blessed them." I wish that those who insist on the letter would tell me what there could be in Benjamin of the ravenous wolf, or how, eating by morning, he could then divide the food in the evening. Even the coarse Jews reject the insult of the letter in this passage. Some refer it to the greediness of the altar, meaning that it was built on Benjamin"s portion, since what is offered in the morning is divided in the evening by the priests. Others, with various stories, which are nonetheless fables, admit that these words can have no literal force. In the church, many hold the opinion that this passage refers to the apostle Paul. I do not reject or question this interpretation but try to do what is written: "Hearing a wise word, he praises it and adds another." And thus to the explanation that my predecessors have validly referred to Paul and that I do not deny, I nevertheless add another. Benjamin, it says, means "son of sorrow." By lot he obtained as his inheritance the place in which the earthly Jerusalem was located, which is the type and has the form of the heavenly. When, therefore, the time will come for the heavenly Jerusalem and the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven to be manifest, this Jerusalem that at present has been cast out and driven away for its lack of faith, that for so long with its children has suffered hunger for the word of God and thirst for spiritual drink"when the fullness of the Gentiles has been reached, according to the apostle"s promise, "then all Israel will be saved."
