It would seem that in those days the medical profession was under a slight cloud. Some people (and for these we have no mercy: they were doubtless prescribing for others, not for themselves) were of opinion that all sorts of healing were an invention of iniquity and an attempt to thwart God’s will. Ben Sirach enters a healthy-minded protest against these fanatical obscurantists, insisting on the healing properties of plants: _Was not water made sweet with wood to acquaint every man of God’s power?_ (E. 38^{5}); an allusion to _Exod._ 15^{25}. More damaging is the unspoken but obvious implication of the sober-minded Chronicler when he records concerning King Asa that _in the thirty and ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet; his disease was exceeding great; yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. And Asa ... died in the one and fortieth year of his reign_ (_2 Chron._ 16^{12}). But to this the physician may make a weighty answer. Until later times than Asa’s it seems possible that orthodox medical practice was in the hands of the priestly classes, and therefore it may be suspected that Asa is censured for having committed the unpardonable wickedness of daring to call in one of the non-priestly practitioners, dealers in herbs and incantations, outsiders, quacks, charlatans, impostors all of them. But unfortunately, whatever the rights and wrongs of Asa’s case, it must be admitted that the profession did not wholly succeed in quelling the doubts about its merits. _Physician, heal thyself_--so ran the proverb in our Lord’s time (_Luke_ 4^{23}), and is it not written of a certain poor woman that _she had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing better, but rather worse_ (_Mark_ 5^{26})? Moreover, reluctantly, we have to notice that the _Mishna_, still later, gives utterance to the disconcerting opinion that _the best of physicians is deserving of Gehenna_ (_Kidd_, 4^{14}). Well, well, it is a vexed question. With relief let us turn, in conclusion, to Ben Sirach’s altogether cheerier view. _The Lord_, says he, _created medicines out of the earth, and a prudent man will not despise them. Wherefore, honour a physician as thou needest him with the honours due; for verily the Lord hath created him. For from the Most High cometh his healing, and from the king he shall receive a gift.... My son, in thy sickness be not negligent, but pray unto the Lord, and He shall heal thee. Put away wrong-doing, and order thine hands aright, and cleanse thine heart from all manner of sin. Offer a sweet offering and a memorial, set in order a fat offering as best thou art able. Then give place to the physician, and let him not go from thee, for thou hast need of him. There is a time when in their hands is the issue for good: they also shall beseech the Lord that He may prosper them to find out what is wrong and to save the life_ (E.