He who washeth after (contact with) a dead body, and toucheth it again, What hath he gained by his bathing? (xxxiv. 25). The similarity of the religious standpoint of these two writers may be further illustrated by their _universalistic_ attitude and their teaching on the _future life_. Although, normally, Ben-Sira looks upon Israel as pre-eminently the nation upon which God’s interest is centred he shows a broader outlook in such a passage as xviii. 1-14: ... As a drop of water from the sea, or as a grain of sand, So are man’s few years in the eternal days. Therefore is the Lord long-suffering towards them, And poureth out His mercy upon them.... The mercy of man is exercised upon his own kin, But the mercy of God is extended to all flesh, Reproving, and chastening, and teaching, And bringing them back as a shepherd his flock.... Tobit, in like manner, contemplates all men as coming within the pale of God’s mercy: I exalt my God, and my soul shall rejoice in the King of heaven; Of His greatness let all men tell, And let them give Him thanks in Jerusalem.... A bright light shall shine unto all the ends of the earth; Many nations shall come from afar, And the inhabitants of the utmost ends of the earth unto Thy holy name; With their gifts also in their hands unto the King of heaven Generations of generations shall utter rejoicing in Thee And Thy name that is elect unto the generations of eternity (xiii. 7-11; cp. xiv. 4-6). The belief of both writers concerning the future life is identical, it follows the normal teaching of the Old Testament; there is, therefore, no belief in the resurrection (see Ecclus. xvii. 27, 28, xxviii. 6, xl. 11, etc., and Tobit iii. 10, iv. 10, xii. 9, xiii. 2); at the same time, one is perhaps justified in seeing the foreshadowing of a developed belief in such words as these: “Lord, command that I be released from this distress, let me go to the everlasting place, and turn not Thy face, O Lord, away from me” (Tobit iii. 6).