The Physician

Ben Sira 38:1–15

ca. 180–132 BCE

1Honor physicians for their services,
for the Lord created them;
2for their gift of healing comes from the Most High,
and they are rewarded by the king.
3The skill of physicians makes them distinguished,
and in the presence of the great they are admired.
4The Lord created medicines out of the earth,
and the sensible will not despise them.
5Was not water made sweet with a tree
in order that its power might be known?
6And he gave skill to human beings
that he might be glorified in his marvelous works.
7By them the physician heals and takes away pain;
8the pharmacist makes a mixture from them.
God’s works will never be finished;
and from him health spreads over all the earth.
9My child, when you are ill, do not delay,
but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.
10Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly,
and cleanse your heart from all sin.
11Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and a memorial portion of choice flour,
and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford.
12Then give the physician his place, for the Lord created him;
do not let him leave you, for you need him.
13There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians,
14for they too pray to the Lord
that he grant them success in diagnosis
and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.
15He who sins against his Maker,
will be defiant toward the physician.

Translation from the New Revised Standard Version.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

Engage with this Source

You may also like