What does Ecclesiasticus Chapter 45 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The chapter’s particular figures and sequence remain attributed to its speaker. Every admitted unit is retained, with edition annotations separately labeled. No imported scenes, outcome guarantees or broad doctrines replace local wording.

Chapter breakdown

Ecclesiasticus 45 remembers Moses as beloved of God and people, faithful and meek, chosen to hear the divine voice and receive commandments in the cloud. His teaching gives Jacob the covenant and Israel judgments. Aaron, his brother from Levi, receives an enduring priestly covenant. The account describes robes, girdle, breeches, ephod, gold bells sounding in the temple, woven colors, engraved stones, mitre and a crown bearing holiness. Their beauty and inherited use accompany service, not a modern claim about clothing's power.

Moses fills Aaron's hands and anoints him. Daily sacrifices consumed by fire, incense, reconciliation and teaching belong to the office. Dathan, Abiron and Core's company envy him and encounter the Lord's wrath and fire. Aaron and his descendants receive offerings for food, while the Lord himself is his portion rather than a landed inheritance.

Phinees, son of Eleazar, is praised for readiness and goodness when he stands during the people's shameful fall and appeases God. His covenant concerns peace and continuing priesthood. The closing comparison with David's inheritance leads to a petition for wisdom in our hearts, just judgment and lasting good among the people. The chapter does not narrate Phinees killing anyone.

The story inside

Opening: The chapter’s particular figures and sequence remain attributed to its speaker. Development: Every admitted unit is retained, with edition annotations separately labeled. Conclusion: No imported scenes, outcome guarantees or broad doctrines replace local wording.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The chapter’s particular figures and sequence remain attributed to its speaker.
2
Every admitted unit is retained, with edition annotations separately labeled.
3
No imported scenes, outcome guarantees or broad doctrines replace local wording.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 77837–77841
45:1. Moses was beloved of God, and men: whose memory is in benediction. 45:2. He made him like the saints in glory, and magnified him in the fear of his enemies, and with his words he made prodigies to cease.
Lines 77858–77863
45:8. He made an everlasting covenant with him, and gave him the priesthood of the nation, and made him blessed in glory, 45:9. And he girded him about with a glorious girdle, and clothed him with a robe of glory, and crowned him with majestic attire.
Lines 77926–77934
45:28. Phinees the son of Eleazar is the third in glory, by imitating him in the fear of the Lord: 45:29. And he stood up in the shameful fall of the people: in the goodness and readiness of his soul he appeased God for Israel. 45:30. Therefore he made to him a covenant of peace, to be the prince of the sanctuary, and of his people, that the dignity of priesthood should be to him and to his seed for ever.