is, at any rate, worth noting that the chief part of the panegyric on David is taken up with an account of his heroic acts, (see xlvii. 2-7). Ben-Sira is more definite in his reference to the Proverbs and Canticles, though even here this is not necessarily the case, especially in regard to the latter, for the reference to songs may be merely taken from 1 Kings iv. 32 (“And his songs were a thousand and five”); when speaking of Solomon he says: “With thy songs, and proverbs, and parables, and thine interpretations thou didst cause astonishment to the peoples” (xlvii. 17, according to the Hebrew). Job is also mentioned in the Hebrew, but not in the Greek text; this omission in the latter can, however, be accounted for, as the translator either misread or misunderstood the Hebrew. But the reference to Job does not seem to imply knowledge of the existence of the Book of Job; the words are: “And also he (i.e. Ezekiel) made mention of Job (the prophet),[206] who maintained all the ways of righteousness” (xlix. 9); here we have clearly a reference to Ezekiel xiv. 20, where Job is mentioned as a typically righteous man. Nehemiah is mentioned by name, and a comparison with Ecclesiasticus xlvii. 9 (already quoted above), with 1 Chronicles xvi. 4, 5 implies a knowledge of the books of Chronicles. But Ben-Sira makes no mention of Ezra (there are perhaps special reasons for this), Daniel, or Esther. The first point to be noticed in this list is that no place of honour is assigned to any one collection of books such as the Hebrew Canon was divided into in later days; the Law, the Prophets, and some of the “Writings” are all treated as belonging to the same category. But more: Ben-Sira, in giving a _résumé_ of the history of Israel as contained in these books, and in enumerating the nation’s worthies, clearly does not consider that they alone are authoritative, or that the list of the nation’s worthies, as contained in them, is exhausted; for he goes on with the history of his nation during his own time, and continues the list of worthies with the mention of Simon, the son of Onias, to whom he devotes far more space than to any of the earlier ones (see l. 1 ff.). Then, again, while Ben-Sira is familiar with almost all the books of the Old Testament, he does not regard them as what we understand by canonical, i.e. in the sense of being separated off from all other books; for if that had been the case, he could not have spoken words such as those which occur, e.g. in xxiv. 33, whereby he places himself in a direct line with the prophets: I will yet pour out doctrine as prophecy, And leave it unto eternal generations (see also verses 30-32, 34);