General

Wisdom of Solomon – Chapter 11

{11:1} She directed their works in the hands of the holy prophet.
{11:2} They made a path through desolate areas, which were uninhabited, and set up their homes in remote places.
{11:3} They stood firm against the enemy, and vindicated themselves from their adversaries.
{11:4} They thirsted, and they called upon you, and water was given them out of the deepest rock, and respite from thirst out of the hard stone.
{11:5} For through water, their enemies had been punished, by the corruption of their drinking water; and so, among them, when the sons of Israel lacked the abundance they would have had, their enemies rejoiced;
{11:6} yet through water, when they were in need, it turned out well for them.
{11:7} For instead of a fountain, even everlasting in flow, you gave human blood to the unjust,
{11:8} and while they would be crushed into disgrace because of the murdering of infants, you unexpectedly gave your own abundant water,
{11:9} revealing through the thirst, which occurred at that time, how you would exalt your own and would kill their adversaries.
{11:10} For when they were being tested, and even when receiving merciful correction, they knew in what way, when your wrath judged the impious, they would suffer torments.
{11:11} For these, advising like a father, you approved; but the others, interrogating like a severe king, you condemned.
{11:12} For whether absent or present, they were tortured alike.
{11:13} For they had received double: weariness and groaning in the remembrance of things past.
{11:14} For when they paid attention to their punishments, to attend to their own benefit, they called to mind the Lord, admiring the end result.
{11:15} For though they showed scorn by throwing out distorted statements, in the end they were amazed at the result, but this is not the same as thirsting for justice.
{11:16} For according to the thinking of their irrational iniquity, because some, going astray, were worshiping mute serpents and worthless beasts, you sent upon them a multitude of mute beasts for vengeance,
{11:17} so that they might know that by whatever things a man sins, by the same also is he tormented.
{11:18} For it was not impossible for your all-powerful hand, which created the world from unknown material, to send forth upon them a multitude of bears, or fierce lions,
{11:19} or, in anger, beasts of a new kind, massive and strange, either breathing out a fiery vapor, or sending forth an odorous smoke, or shooting horrible sparks from their eyes;
{11:20} whereby, not only wounds would be able to destroy them, but also the very sight would kill them through fear.
{11:21} Yet, even without these, they could have been killed with one breath, suffering persecution of their own making and being scattered by your spirit of virtue; but you have ordered all things in size and number and weight.
{11:22} Though many are strong, you alone always overcome. And who will withstand the strength of your arm?
{11:23} For, like a tiny grain on a scale, just so is the world before you, and like a drop of dew before dawn, which descends upon the earth.
{11:24} But you are merciful to all, because you can do all, and you dismiss the sins of man because of repentance.
{11:25} For you love all things that are, and you hate nothing of the things you have made; for you would not have created or established anything that you hated.
{11:26} For how could anything endure, except by your will? Or what, having been called by you not to exist, would be preserved?
{11:27} Yet you spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord, who loves souls.

Continue Reading

Wisdom of Solomon – Chapter 10

{10:1} This is he, who was formed first by God, the father of the world, who was alone when created; she preserved him,
{10:2} and led him out of his offense, and gave him the power to maintain all things.
{10:3} After this, when the unjust man withdrew from her in his anger, he perished through anger by the murder of his brother.
{10:4} Because of this, when water destroyed the earth, wisdom healed it again, guiding the just by means of contemptible wood.
{10:5} Moreover, when the nations had conspired together to consent to wickedness, she knew the just, and preserved him without blame before God, and preserved his strength out of mercy for his sons.
{10:6} She freed this just man from the destruction of the impious, fleeing descending fire in the Five Cities,
{10:7} which, as a testimony to their wickedness, is a constantly smoking desolate land, and the trees bear fruit at uncertain times, and a figure of salt stands as a monument to an unbelieving soul.
{10:8} For, in disregarding wisdom, they are fallen, not so much in this, that they were ignorant of good, but that they bequeathed to men a memorial of their foolishness, so that, in the things in which they sinned, they were unable to escape notice.
{10:9} Yet wisdom has freed from sorrow those who are self-observant.
{10:10} She led the just man, this fugitive of his brother’s wrath, by the right ways, and revealed to him the kingdom of God, and gave him the knowledge of holiness, honored him in his labors, and completed his labors.
{10:11} In the midst of encircling deceit, she flowed around him and made him honest.
{10:12} She guarded him from his enemies, and she defended him from seducers, and she gave him a strong conflict so that he might overcome and might know that the power of all things is wisdom.
{10:13} She did not abandon the just man when he was sold, but freed him from sinners; she went down with him into the pit,
{10:14} and she did not abandon him in chains, while she brought him the scepter of the kingdom and power against those who oppressed him, and revealed them to be liars who had dishonored him, and gave him everlasting glory.
{10:15} She freed this just people and the blameless offspring, from the nations that had oppressed them.
{10:16} She entered the soul of the servant of God and stood against dreadful kings in the midst of portents and signs,
{10:17} and she rendered to the just the wages of their labors, and led them along a wondrous way; and she was to them, like a cover by day, and like the light of the stars by night.
{10:18} She carried them through the Red Sea, and led them across a great water.
{10:19} But their enemies, she submerged in the sea, and from the furthest depths, she drew them up. Therefore, the just carried off the spoils of the impious.
{10:20} And they chanted to your holy name, Lord, and they together praised your victorious hand,
{10:21} because wisdom opened the mouth of the mute, and made the speech of infants eloquent.

Continue Reading