Nebuchadnezzar wants to kill Ben Sira. He's just not very subtle about it. "I have a friend I hate," the king says, barely disguising his intentions, "and I want to kill him with food he doesn't know about. Tell me how, and I'll pay you silver and gold."
Ben Sira sees through it instantly. And he responds with a fable.
There was once a beautiful horse belonging to Nimrod, the ancient king. The other horses came to him with a proposal: "Give us your head to cut off, and we'll fill your stable with straw and barley." The horse, being intelligent, saw the trap. "Fools," he said. "If you cut off my head, who exactly is going to eat the straw?"
Ben Sira's point to Nebuchadnezzar is razor-sharp. If you kill me, who will collect your reward? The king swears an oath not to harm him.
So Ben Sira plays a dangerous game. He tells the king that egg yolks eaten without salt for ten days will kill a person. Nebuchadnezzar tests it on someone. It works. Then he orders Ben Sira to eat the same thing. The boy agrees—but secretly adds salt to his portion. When the king tries to replicate Ben Sira's "recipe" and gets sick, the boy heals him with an amulet. When the king's son falls ill next, Ben Sira writes a more elaborate amulet invoking the names of healing angels, describing their forms, wings, and limbs.
According to the Alphabet of Ben Sira, composed between 700 and 1000 CE, the boy summarizes the moral with an ancient proverb: "Evil comes from evil people. Act first to kill someone who's trying to kill you." It's a story about survival by wit, where a seven-year-old Jewish child outmaneuvers the most powerful king on earth—not through strength, but through stories, science, and knowing when to add salt.
ד "I will ask you about something, and you will tell it to me, and I will give you one r'em of silver, and incomprehensible amounts of gold. I have a friend and I hate him and want to kill him using something he doesn't know about, with a food that they can feed him so he dies." Immediately, Ben Sira understood that he intended to kill him, so he said to him, "Let me compare it to a fable for you. There was once an unendingly beautiful horse belonging to Nimrod. The other horses said to him, 'Give us your head to cut off, and we will give you a house full of straw and barley.' The horse knew what they were trying to do to him, for he was intelligent. He said to them, 'Fools! If I give you my head to cut off, who will eat the straw and barley?' Thus you are seeking to kill me, but if you kill me, who will take one r'em of silver and gold, and who will eat them?" He said to him, "By Kemosh's life, I will not kill you." He said to him, "I will tell you." He said to him, "Give him ten days and have him eat egg yolks without salt, and he will die." The king thought to himself, "He lies." He brought someone and fed it to him, and he died. The king said to him, "Eat it before me, and I will leave you alone." He said to him, "Everything that you prepare with your hands I cannot eat. I will prepare it and eat them." What did he do? He added salt secretly, and he ate it for a full month. He said to him, "Why did you lie to me?" He said to him, "I made them thin, crushed them a little, and put something in them." Immediately, the king went and did this, and became ill. He said to him, "Heal me!" He wrote him an amulet, and he was healed. He said to him, "Why did you try to kill me?" He said to him, "Thus goes the ancient fable- evil comes from evil people. Act first to kill someone who is trying to kill you." ( Someone trying to kill you- kill them early ) Immediately, his small son became ill. The king said to him, "Heal my son, and if you do not, I will kill you." Immediately he sat and wrote him an amulet in the Name quickly, and wrote the names of the angels who are appointed for healing, with their names, and their composition, and their form, and their wings, and their arms, and their legs. And when Nebuchadnezzar saw the amulet he said, "What are these?"
