Nebuchadnezzar doesn't believe Ben Sira actually knows what's in his garden. So the king proposes a test. He'll blindfold the boy, march his army past in separate battalions, and Ben Sira will have to identify which group contains the king.
The first troop thunders past with noise and shouting, shaking the ground. "Is the king here?" asks the guard watching Ben Sira. "No." The second troop charges by with cavalry flanking all sides. "No." The third marches past with chanting and music. "No."
Then a fourth group passes. In silence. Not even the horses' hooves can be heard. Just a thin, quiet stillness.
"That's the king," Ben Sira says. "And he's standing right in front of me."
They remove the blindfold. He's right.
The explanation Ben Sira gives is devastating. He recognized Nebuchadnezzar's presence by the silence because the king, in his arrogance, imitates God. Just as God appeared to the prophet Elijah not in the earthquake, not in the fire, but in a kol d'mamah dakah—a still, small voice—Nebuchadnezzar surrounds himself with the same quiet grandeur. "You are not equal to God," Ben Sira tells him bluntly. "But your pride has made you comparable to the Holy One's authority, and that's why God is angry with you."
When Nebuchadnezzar protests that God has made him great, Ben Sira quotes (Obadiah 1:4): "If you go as high as an eagle..." The verse ends with a fall. According to the Alphabet of Ben Sira, composed between 700 and 1000 CE, God raises the proud only so the crash will be louder. Furious, Nebuchadnezzar plots to poison the boy—and the story takes an even wilder turn from there.
ג He said to him, "Have you seen them in my garden? Or have you been told?" He said to him, "If you want, cover my eyes and go out with your soldiers, and form them into separate troops for yourself, and I will tell you which troop you are in." And he did so- he covered his eyes and placed a trusted man with him. A troop passed by with noise and shouts, until the earth was shaking. The trusted one who was with him said to him, "Is the king among this troop?" He said to him, "No." (In the Talmud, this is told about Rav Sheshet, Berachot 55a) Another troop passed by with great shouting, and it had cavalry running along all the sides. The trusted man said, "Is the king among this troop? He said to him, "No." A third troop passed by with chants and all kinds of music. He said to him, "Is there a king here?" He said to him, "No." A fourth troop passed by in silence, and even the sound of the horses' hooves could not be heard, but rather a thin stillness. He said to him, "Is it here?" He said to him, "Yes. [And behold he is right across from me!" Immediately they opened his eyes and he saw him standing by him.] The king said to him, "Inform me how you knew this great secret." He said to him, "You are so haughty in your royalty that you compare yourself to the Holy Blessed One, as it is said, 'And behold, God passed by with a thin, still sound,' in which the King, King of Kings, was visible seated on a high and lofty throne." He said to him, "You equate me with your God!" He said to him, "You are not equal to Them, but because of your pride and great wickedness, you have become comparable to the Holy Blessed One's authority, and that is why Their anger is against you." He said to him, "And if Their anger is against me, how could They have lifted me up, and made me great in the world, and handed everything over to me?" He said to him, "When the Holy Blessed One wants to bring a person low, They first raise them and then lower them, as it says, (Ovadiah 1:4) 'If you go as high as an eagle...'" Immediately, he said to him, "If you become my son-in-law and marry my daughter, I will appoint you king in my place." He said to him, "I am a human being, and I cannot marry an animal, as it says, 'Their flesh is the flesh of donkeys...'" When the king heard that he was cursing, insulting and slandering the nations of the world, he got very angry. He said to his wise ones, "Tell me something that we can feed him secretly so that he will die." They said to him, "We do not know." Immediately, he killed them, and said to Ben Sira:
