Sirach 50:25–26

Verse 25: "With two nations my soul is vexed, and the third is no nation."

The sudden shift in tone here is striking. The preceding hymn (Sir 50:1–24) is among the most soaring passages in all of Deuterocanonical Scripture — a liturgical celebration of Simon the High Priest officiating at the Temple, suffused with light, incense, and the glory of Aaron. To conclude the entire book with this sharp polemic is deliberately jarring. Ben Sira uses the formula of the numerical proverb (X / X+1), a classic device of Hebrew wisdom and poetry found also in Proverbs 30 and Amos 1–2. The escalating pattern builds suspense: two nations vex him — and then the shocking third clause: "the third is no nation at all." The Hebrew word used for "vex" (כָּעַס, ka'as) is strong, denoting a deep inner agitation bordering on indignation. This is not mild disapproval but the burning irritation of a man who feels the holiness of Israel and its worship actively threatened by the proximity of these groups.

The reason for Ben Sira's emotion is theological, not merely ethnic. Having just praised Simon for maintaining the integrity of the Temple liturgy, Ben Sira turns to the groups he regards as the greatest threats to that integrity: syncretists, pagans, and schismatics. Each of the three groups represents a different category of corruption.

Verse 26: "Those who sit on the mountain of Samaria, the Philistines, and the foolish people who live in Shechem."

The three groups are now named explicitly:

1. "Those who sit on the mountain of Samaria" refers to the Samaritan community established in the northern kingdom after the Assyrian deportations of 722 B.C. (2 Kgs 17:24–41). They worshipped on Mount Gerizim and had erected a rival temple there, likely around 332 B.C. under the Macedonians. For Ben Sira, writing around 180 B.C., this schismatic temple and its priesthood were a living wound in the body of Israel — worshipping the God of Israel in an unauthorized sanctuary, with a corrupted Pentateuchal tradition, and claiming legitimacy rivaling Jerusalem. Note that Ben Sira does not say "those who worship on Mount Gerizim" but those who "sit" (dwell, are rooted) there — suggesting an intractable, settled condition of error.

2. "The Philistines" — traditional enemies of Israel from the time of the Judges and Samuel — represent straightforward paganism, the ancient gentile adversary. By Ben Sira's era, the Philistines had been largely absorbed into the Hellenistic coastal culture of the Shephelah, but the name retained its symbolic freight: the embodiment of violent, idolatrous opposition to the covenant people.

3. "The foolish people who live in Shechem" is almost certainly a second reference to the Samaritans, here associated with the ancient city of Shechem (modern Nablus), the traditional cultic center of the northern tribes and the location near Mount Gerizim. The Hebrew word for "foolish" here (nābāl, נָבָל) is deeply loaded — it denotes not merely intellectual stupidity but the moral and spiritual obtuseness of one who refuses to acknowledge God's true order (cf. Ps 14:1, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'"). Calling Shechem's inhabitants nābāl is thus not an ethnic slur so much as a theological verdict: they have rejected the wisdom of the Torah rightly interpreted and the covenant properly ordered around the Jerusalem Temple.

Typological and Spiritual Senses:

Allegorically, the three groups map onto three perennial threats to the life of faith: schism (Samaria's rival temple), paganism (the Philistines), and obstinate foolishness that refuses the light of God's ordered revelation (Shechem). The anagogical sense — oriented toward the heavenly Jerusalem — is implicit: the holiness of true worship cannot coexist with corruption at its borders. The passage functions as a negative definition of the covenant community: holiness is sharpened by contrast with what it is not.