<p>The letter Mem — which in Hebrew also means "water" — brings a proverb built entirely around that elemental image:</p>
<p>"The waters of a virgin wife are sweet and add strength; the waters of an old wife are bitter as wormwood and drain strength, like a cistern that had water but the wind has drawn it out."</p>
<p>The metaphor of "waters" for intimacy and marital vitality has deep roots in the Hebrew Bible. (Proverbs 5:15) says: "Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well" — a classic biblical euphemism for faithfulness in marriage. Ben Sira takes that familiar image and extends it into something harsher: sweet water versus bitter, a full cistern versus one emptied by the wind.</p>
<p>Wormwood — la'anah (לענה) in Hebrew — shows up throughout the Hebrew Bible as the symbol of bitterness and suffering. The prophet Jeremiah uses it (Jeremiah 9:14), and so does the book of Lamentations (Lamentations 3:15). It's the taste of punishment, of things gone wrong. Ben Sira is saying that the wrong marriage doesn't just fail to nourish you. It poisons you.</p>
<p>The cistern image is particularly striking. A cistern that once held water but has been emptied by the wind — it's not just empty, it's a reminder of what used to be there. The Alphabet of Ben Sira, for all its satirical comedy, occasionally lands on images that feel genuinely poetic. This is one of them. The teacher, again, says nothing in response. He just calls the next letter.</p>