Patrick W. Skehan

The Acrostic Poem in Sirach 51:13–30

Since the publication of a first century A.D. witness to the first half of this composition, found in 11Q Pss a , col. 21, lines 11–17, it has seemed to the present writer that a textual study of the whole poem is called for which, among other things, will reappraise its relationship to the book of Sirach, to which it regularly forms an appendix. The text as given here is necessarily to some extent reconstruction, primarily in the second half (of which only the last two words are preserved at the beginning of IIQ Pss a , col. 22). It is hoped that the notes given below to the individual lines of the poem will both identify and explain the elements of reconstruction, along with the medieval Hebrew evidence and that of the versions. The translation provided has as its primary purpose to show in small compass how the Hebrew text is being read and understood; it is approximately the rendering contained in the New American Bible (Paterson, N.J., and elsewhere, 1970).