[Wisdom 6]
{6:1} Wisdom is better than power, and a prudent man is better than a powerful one.
{6:2} Therefore, hear, O kings, and understand; learn, you judges of the ends of the earth.
{6:3} Listen closely, you who hold the attention of the crowds, and who please yourselves by disturbing the nations.
{6:4} For power has been given to you from the Lord and strength from the Most High, who will examine your works and scrutinize your thoughts.
{6:5} For, when you were ministers of his kingdom, you did not judge correctly, nor keep the law of justice, nor walk according to the will of God.
{6:6} Horribly and quickly he will appear to you, because he will make a severe judgment for those who are in charge.
{6:7} For, to the little, great mercy is granted, but the powerful will endure powerful torment.
{6:8} For the Lord will not exempt anyone’s character, nor will he stand in awe of anyone’s greatness, because he himself made the little and the great, and he is equally concerned for everyone.
{6:9} But a powerful torture pursues the powerful.
{6:10} Therefore, O kings, these, my words, are for you, so that you may learn wisdom and not perish.
{6:11} For those who have justly preserved justice will be justified, and those who have learned these things will find what to answer.
{6:12} Therefore, desire my words, love them, and you will have instruction.
{6:13} Wisdom is pure and never fades away, and is easily seen by those who love her and found by those who seek her.
{6:14} She anticipates those who desire her, so that she first reveals herself to them.
{6:15} Whoever awakens early to seek her, will not labor, for he will find her sitting at his door.
{6:16} Therefore, by thinking about her, understanding is perfected, and whoever remains watchful for her, will quickly be secure.
{6:17} For she goes about seeking such as are worthy of her, and she reveals herself to them cheerfully in the ways, and meets them with all foresight.
{6:18} For the very true beginning of her is the desire for instruction.
{6:19} Therefore, the zeal for instruction is love, and love is the keeping of her laws, and the keeping of her laws is the perfection of incorruptibility,
{6:20} while incorruptibility makes us near to God.
{6:21} And so, the desire for wisdom leads to an everlasting kingdom.
{6:22} If, therefore, your delight is in thrones and scepters, O kings of the people, love wisdom, so that you may reign forever;
{6:23} love the light of wisdom, all you who lead the peoples.
{6:24} But what wisdom is, and how she was made, I will report, and I will not hide the mysteries of God from you, but I will investigate her from the beginning of her birth, and I will place the knowledge of her in the light, and will not pass over the truth.
{6:25} Neither will I hold to the path that dwindles away with envy, because such a man will not partake in wisdom.
{6:26} For the proliferation of the wise is sanity for the world, and a wise king is the mainstay of the people.
{6:27} Therefore, receive instruction by my words, and it will benefit you.

{5:1} Then the just will stand with great steadfastness against those who have oppressed them and have taken away their labors.
{5:2} Seeing this, they will be troubled with terrible fear, and they will be amazed at the suddenness of unexpected salvation.
{5:3} Driven toward regret, and through the anguish of their groaning spirit, they will say within themselves: “These are the ones whom we held for some time in derision and in mocking reproach.
{5:4} We foolish considered their life to be madness, and their end to be without honor.
{5:5} How is it that they are counted among the sons of God, and their place is among the holy?
{5:6} Therefore, we have strayed from the way of truth, and the light of justice has not shined on us, and the sun of understanding has not risen on us.
{5:7} We exhausted ourselves in the way of iniquity and perdition, and have walked a difficult way, while ignoring the way of the Lord.
{5:8} How has arrogance benefited us? Or what has exalting in riches brought us?
{5:9} All those things have passed away like a shadow, and like a messenger traveling quickly by;
{5:10} and like a ship passing over the waves of water, when it has gone by, its trace cannot be found, nor can the pathway of its keel in the waves;
{5:11} or, like a bird flying through the air, there is no evidence of her journey to be found, but there is hardly a sound as the beating of her wings lifts up the air and, by the force of her journey, divides the air she has flown across, which was disturbed by her wings, and afterwards there is no sign of her journey to be found;
{5:12} or, like an arrow shot at a selected mark, the air continues to be divided and to be brought together again, so that its passing is unknown.
{5:13} And in like manner we, having been born, continuously cease to exist, and indeed, we depart with no sign of virtue to show, but we are consumed in our malice.”
{5:14} Such things those who sinned said in hell.
{5:15} For the hope of the impious is like feathers, which are blown away by the wind, and like a thin foam, which is dispersed by a storm, and like smoke, which is scattered by the wind, and like the memory of a guest who passes by one day.
{5:16} But the just will live forever, and their reward is with the Lord, and the thought of them is with the Most High.
{5:17} Therefore, they will receive a beautiful kingdom and a crown of splendor from the hand of the Lord, for with his right hand he will cover them, and with his holy arm he will defend them.
{5:18} And his zeal will take up arms, and he will equip his servants for retribution on their enemies.
{5:19} He will put on justice as a breastplate, and he will grasp sure judgment as a helmet.
{5:20} He will select fairness as an invincible shield.
{5:21} Yet he will sharpen his severe wrath into a spear, and he will fight with those of the world against the irrational.
{5:22} Shafts of lightning will hurl forth accurately, and, as if from a well-curved bow of clouds, they will be expelled and will fly to the determined mark.
{5:23} And hail will be cast like stones full of anger, and the water of the sea will rise up against them, and the rivers will charge forth harshly.
{5:24} The spirit of virtue will stand firm against them and like a whirlwind will divide them, and he will lead all the world of iniquity into a wasteland, and malice will overthrow the seats of power.