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The interpretation timeline

Sir 23:22

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Sir 23:22 · Douay-Rheims
“A hot soul is a burning fire, it will never be quenched, till it devour some thing.”
Medieval c. 750 – 1100
856
A.D.
Rabanus Maurus Medieval
c. A.D. 780–856
“The divine judgment condemns the adultery of both the husband and the wife in the same way, and the fruit of such unions is not pleasing to the Lord, nor can what has clearly been born of the contamination of sin please him. According to allegorical interpretation, the assembly of the heretics, or any soul that is deceived by heretical perversity, ceases to please God, since she has abandoned her first husband, the guide of her youth, who had united her to himself in the sacred bond of baptism and adorned her with the beauty of virtue. Ezekiel wrote very clearly on this: "She has united with another man," that is, with the devil, "who has contaminated her with various errors, making her completely guilty."”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.