Wisdom

¹Love righteousness, all you who are judges of the earth. Think of the Lord with a good mind. Seek him in singleness of heart, ²because he is found by those who don’t put him to the test, and is manifested to those who trust him. ³for crooked thoughts separate from God. His Power convicts when it is tested, and exposes the foolish; ⁴because wisdom will not enter into a soul that devises evil, nor dwell in a body that is enslaved by sin. ⁵For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will depart from thoughts that are without understanding, and will be ashamed when unrighteousness has come in. ⁶For wisdom is a spirit who loves man, and she will not hold a blasphemer guiltless for his lips, because God is witness of his inmost self, and is a true overseer of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue. ⁷Because the spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together knows what is said. ⁸Therefore no one who utters unrighteous things will be unseen; neither will Justice, when it convicts, pass him by. ⁹For in his counsels the ungodly will be searched out, and the sound of his words will come to the Lord to bring his lawless deeds to conviction; ¹⁰because a jealous ear listens to all things, and the noise of murmurings is not hidden. ¹¹Beware then of unprofitable murmuring, and keep your tongue from slander; because no secret utterance will go on its way void, and a lying mouth destroys a soul. ¹²Don’t court death in the error of your life. Don’t draw destruction upon yourselves by the works of your hands; ¹³because God didn’t make death, neither does he delight when the living perish. ¹⁴For he created all things that they might have being. The generative powers of the world are wholesome, and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor has Hades royal dominion upon earth; ¹⁵for righteousness is immortal, ¹⁶but ungodly men by their hands and their words summon death; deeming him a friend they pined away. They made a covenant with him, because they are worthy to belong with him.

¹For they said within themselves, with unsound reasoning, “Our life is short and sorrowful. There is no healing when a man comes to his end, and no one was ever known who was released from Hades. ²Because we were born by mere chance, and hereafter we will be as though we had never been, because the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our heart, ³which being extinguished, the body will be turned into ashes, and the spirit will be dispersed as thin air. ⁴Our name will be forgotten in time. No one will remember our works. Our life will pass away as the traces of a cloud, and will be scattered as is a mist, when it is chased by the rays of the sun, and overcome by its heat. ⁵For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow, and our end doesn’t retreat, because it is securely sealed, and no one turns it back. ⁶“Come therefore and let’s enjoy the good things that exist. Let’s use the creation earnestly as in our youth. ⁷Let’s fill ourselves with costly wine and perfumes, and let no spring flower pass us by. ⁸Let’s crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither. ⁹Let none of us go without his share in our proud revelry. Let’s leave tokens of mirth everywhere, because this is our portion, and this is our lot. ¹⁰Let’s oppress the righteous poor. Let’s not spare the widow, nor regard the gray hair of the old man. ¹¹But let our strength be a law of righteousness; for that which is weak is proven useless. ¹²But let’s lie in wait for the righteous man, because he annoys us, is contrary to our works, reproaches us with sins against the law, and charges us with sins against our training. ¹³He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord. ¹⁴He became to us a reproof of our thoughts. ¹⁵He is grievous to us even to look at, because his life is unlike other men’s, and his paths are strange. ¹⁶We were regarded by him as something worthless, and he abstains from our ways as from uncleanness. He calls the latter end of the righteous happy. He boasts that God is his father. ¹⁷Let’s see if his words are true. Let’s test what will happen at the end of his life. ¹⁸For if the righteous man is God’s son, he will uphold him, and he will deliver him out of the hand of his adversaries. ¹⁹Let’s test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and test his patience. ²⁰Let’s condemn him to a shameful death, for he will be protected, according to his words.” ²¹Thus they reasoned, and they were led astray; for their wickedness blinded them, ²²and they didn’t know the mysteries of God, neither did they hope for wages of holiness, nor did they discern that there is a prize for blameless souls. ²³Because God created man for incorruption, and made him an image of his own everlastingness; ²⁴but death entered into the world by the envy of the devil, and those who belong to him experience it.

¹But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will touch them. ²In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died. Their departure was considered a disaster, ³and their travel away from us ruin, but they are in peace. ⁴For even if in the sight of men they are punished, their hope is full of immortality. ⁵Having borne a little chastening, they will receive great good; because God tested them, and found them worthy of himself. ⁶He tested them like gold in the furnace, and he accepted them as a whole burnt offering. ⁷In the time of their visitation they will shine. They will run back and forth like sparks among stubble. ⁸They will judge nations and have dominion over peoples. The Lord will reign over them forever. ⁹Those who trust him will understand truth. The faithful will live with him in love, because grace and mercy are with his chosen ones. ¹⁰But the ungodly will be punished even as their reasoning deserves, those who neglected righteousness and revolted from the Lord; ¹¹for he who despises wisdom and discipline is miserable. Their hope is void and their toils unprofitable. Their works are useless. ¹²Their wives are foolish and their children are wicked. ¹³Their descendants are cursed. For the barren woman who is undefiled is happy, she who has not conceived in transgression. She will have fruit when God examines souls. ¹⁴So is the eunuch which has done no lawless deed with his hands, nor imagined wicked things against the Lord; for a precious gift will be given to him for his faithfulness, and a delightful inheritance in the Lord’s sanctuary. ¹⁵For good labors have fruit of great renown. The root of understanding can’t fail. ¹⁶But children of adulterers will not come to maturity. The seed of an unlawful union will vanish away. ¹⁷For if they live long, they will not be esteemed, and in the end, their old age will be without honor. ¹⁸If they die young, they will have no hope, nor consolation in the day of judgment. ¹⁹For the end of an unrighteous generation is always grievous.

¹It is better to be childless with virtue, for immortality is in the memory of virtue, because it is recognized both before God and before men. ²When it is present, people imitate it. They long after it when it has departed. Throughout all time it marches, crowned in triumph, victorious in the competition for the prizes that are undefiled. ³But the multiplying brood of the ungodly will be of no profit, and their illegitimate offshoots won’t take deep root, nor will they establish a sure hold. ⁴For even if they grow branches and flourish for a season, standing unsure, they will be shaken by the wind. They will be uprooted by the violence of winds. ⁵Their branches will be broken off before they come to maturity. Their fruit will be useless, never ripe to eat, and fit for nothing. ⁶For unlawfully conceived children are witnesses of wickedness against parents when they are investigated. ⁷But a righteous man, even if he dies before his time, will be at rest. ⁸For honorable old age is not that which stands in length of time, nor is its measure given by number of years, ⁹but understanding is gray hair to men, and an unspotted life is ripe old age. ¹⁰Being found well-pleasing to God, someone was loved. While living among sinners he was transported. ¹¹He was caught away, lest evil should change his understanding, or guile deceive his soul. ¹²For the fascination of wickedness obscures the things which are good, and the whirl of desire perverts an innocent mind. ¹³Being made perfect quickly, he filled a long time; ¹⁴for his soul was pleasing to the Lord. Therefore he hurried out of the midst of wickedness. ¹⁵But the peoples saw and didn’t understand, not considering this, that grace and mercy are with his chosen, and that he visits his holy ones; ¹⁶but a righteous man who is dead will condemn the ungodly who are living, and youth who is quickly perfected will condemn the many years of an unrighteous man’s old age. ¹⁷For the ungodly will see a wise man’s end, and won’t understand what the Lord planned for him, and why he safely kept him. ¹⁸They will see, and they will despise; but the Lord will laugh them to scorn. After this, they will become a dishonored carcass and a reproach among the dead forever; ¹⁹because he will dash them speechless to the ground, and will shake them from the foundations. They will lie utterly waste. They will be in anguish and their memory will perish. ²⁰They will come with coward fear when their sins are counted. Their lawless deeds will convict them to their face.

¹Then the righteous man will stand in great boldness before the face of those who afflicted him, and those who make his labors of no account. ²When they see him, they will be troubled with terrible fear, and will be amazed at the marvel of salvation. ³They will speak among themselves repenting, and for distress of spirit they will groan, “This was he whom we used to hold in derision, as a parable of reproach. ⁴We fools considered his life madness, and his end without honor. ⁵How was he counted among sons of God? How is his lot among saints? ⁶Truly we went astray from the way of truth. The light of righteousness didn’t shine for us. The sun didn’t rise for us. ⁷We took our fill of the paths of lawlessness and destruction. We traveled through trackless deserts, but we didn’t know the Lord’s way. ⁸What did our arrogance profit us? What good have riches and boasting brought us? ⁹Those things all passed away as a shadow, like a rumor that runs by, ¹⁰like a ship passing through the billowy water, which, when it has gone by, there is no trace to be found, no pathway of its keel in the waves. ¹¹Or it is like when a bird flies through the air, no evidence of its passage is found, but the light wind, lashed with the stroke of its pinions, and torn apart with the violent rush of the moving wings, is passed through. Afterwards no sign of its coming remains. ¹²Or it is like when an arrow is shot at a mark, the air it divided closes up again immediately, so that men don’t know where it passed through. ¹³So we also, as soon as we were born, ceased to be; and we had no sign of virtue to show, but we were utterly consumed in our wickedness.” ¹⁴Because the hope of the ungodly man is like chaff carried by the wind, and as foam vanishing before a tempest; and is scattered like smoke by the wind, and passes by as the remembrance of a guest who stays just a day. ¹⁵But the righteous live forever. Their reward is in the Lord, and the care for them with the Most High. ¹⁶Therefore they will receive the crown of royal dignity and the diadem of beauty from the Lord’s hand, because he will cover them with his right hand, and he will shield them with his arm. ¹⁷He will take his zeal as complete armor, and will make the whole creation his weapons to punish his enemies: ¹⁸He will put on righteousness as a breastplate, and will wear impartial judgment as a helmet. ¹⁹He will take holiness as an invincible shield. ²⁰He will sharpen stern wrath for a sword. The universe will go with him to fight against his frenzied foes. ²¹Shafts of lightning will fly with true aim. They will leap to the mark from the clouds, as from a well-drawn bow. ²²Hailstones full of wrath will be hurled as from a catapult. The water of the sea will be angered against them. Rivers will sternly overwhelm them. ²³A mighty wind will encounter them. It will winnow them away like a tempest. So lawlessness will make all the land desolate. Their evil-doing will overturn the thrones of princes.

¹Hear therefore, you kings, and understand. Learn, you judges of the ends of the earth. ²Give ear, you rulers who have dominion over many people, and make your boast in multitudes of nations, ³because your dominion was given to you from the Lord, and your sovereignty from the Most High. He will search out your works, and will inquire about your plans, ⁴because being officers of his kingdom, you didn’t judge rightly, nor did you keep the law, nor did you walk according to God’s counsel. ⁵He will come upon you awfully and swiftly, because a stern judgment comes on those who are in high places. ⁶For the man of low estate may be pardoned in mercy, but mighty men will be mightily tested. ⁷For the Sovereign Lord of all will not be impressed with anyone, neither will he show deference to greatness; because it is he who made both small and great, and cares about them all; ⁸but the scrutiny that comes upon the powerful is strict. ⁹Therefore, my words are to you, O princes, that you may learn wisdom and not fall away. ¹⁰For those who have kept the things that are holy in holiness will be made holy. Those who have been taught them will find what to say in defense. ¹¹Therefore set your desire on my words. Long for them, and you princes will be instructed. ¹²Wisdom is radiant and doesn’t fade away; and is easily seen by those who love her, and found by those who seek her. ¹³She anticipates those who desire her, making herself known. ¹⁴He who rises up early to seek her won’t have difficulty, for he will find her sitting at his gates. ¹⁵For to think upon her is perfection of understanding, and he who watches for her will quickly be free from care; ¹⁶because she herself goes around, seeking those who are worthy of her, and in their paths she appears to them graciously, and in every purpose she meets them. ¹⁷For her true beginning is desire for instruction; and desire for instruction is love. ¹⁸And love is observance of her laws. To give heed to her laws confirms immortality. ¹⁹Immortality brings closeness to God. ²⁰So then desire for wisdom promotes to a kingdom. ²¹If therefore you delight in thrones and sceptres, you princes of peoples, honor wisdom, that you may reign forever. ²²But what wisdom is, and how she came into being, I will declare. I won’t hide mysteries from you; but I will explore from her first beginning, bring the knowledge of her into clear light, and I will not pass by the truth. ²³Indeed, I won’t travel with consuming envy, because envy will have no fellowship with wisdom. ²⁴But a multitude of wise men is salvation to the world, and an understanding king is stability for his people. ²⁵Therefore be instructed by my words, and you will profit.

¹I myself am also mortal, like everyone else, and am a descendant of one formed first and born of the earth. ²I molded into flesh in the time of ten months in my mother’s womb, being compacted in blood from the seed of man and pleasure of marriage. ³I also, when I was born, drew in the common air, and fell upon the kindred earth, uttering, like all, for my first voice, the same cry. ⁴I was nursed with care in swaddling clothes. ⁵For no king had a different beginning, ⁶but all men have one entrance into life, and a common departure. ⁷For this cause I prayed, and understanding was given to me. I asked, and a spirit of wisdom came to me. ⁸I preferred her before sceptres and thrones. I considered riches nothing in comparison to her. ⁹Neither did I liken to her any priceless gem, because all gold in her presence is a little sand, and silver will be considered as clay before her. ¹⁰I loved her more than health and beauty, and I chose to have her rather than light, because her bright shining is never laid to sleep. ¹¹All good things came to me with her, and innumerable riches are in her hands. ¹²And I rejoiced over them all because wisdom leads them; although I didn’t know that she was their mother. ¹³As I learned without guile, I impart without grudging. I don’t hide her riches. ¹⁴For she is a treasure for men that doesn’t fail, and those who use it obtain friendship with God, commended by the gifts which they present through discipline. ¹⁵But may God grant that I may speak his judgment, and to conceive thoughts worthy of what has been given me; because he is one who guides even wisdom and who corrects the wise. ¹⁶For both we and our words are in his hand, with all understanding and skill in various crafts. ¹⁷For he himself gave me an unerring knowledge of the things that are, to know the structure of the universe and the operation of the elements; ¹⁸the beginning, end, and middle of times; the alternations of the solstices and the changes of seasons; ¹⁹the circuits of years and the positions of stars; ²⁰the natures of living creatures and the raging of wild beasts; the violence of winds and the thoughts of men; the diversities of plants and the virtues of roots. ²¹All things that are either secret or manifest I learned, ²²for wisdom, that is the architect of all things, taught me. For there is in her a spirit that is quick to understand, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, freely moving, clear in utterance, unpolluted, distinct, invulnerable, loving what is good, keen, unhindered, ²³beneficent, loving toward man, steadfast, sure, free from care, all-powerful, all-surveying, and penetrating through all spirits that are quick to understand, pure, most subtle. ²⁴For wisdom is more mobile than any motion. Yes, she pervades and penetrates all things by reason of her purity. ²⁵For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty. Therefore nothing defiled can find entrance into her. ²⁶For she is a reflection of everlasting light, an unspotted mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. ²⁷Although she is one, she has power to do all things. Remaining in herself, she renews all things. From generation to generation passing into holy souls, she makes friends of God and prophets. ²⁸For God loves nothing as much as one who dwells with wisdom. ²⁹For she is fairer than the sun, and above all the constellations of the stars. She is better than light. ³⁰For daylight yields to night, but evil does not prevail against wisdom.

¹But she reaches from one end to the other with full strength, and orders all things well. ²I loved her and sought her from my youth. I sought to take her for my bride. I became enamoured by her beauty. ³She glorifies her noble birth by living with God. The Sovereign Lord of all loves her. ⁴For she is initiated into the knowledge of God, and she chooses his works. ⁵But if riches are a desired possession in life, what is richer than wisdom, which makes all things? ⁶And if understanding is effective, who more than wisdom is an architect of the things that exist? ⁷If a man loves righteousness, the fruits of wisdom’s labor are virtues, for she teaches soberness, understanding, righteousness, and courage. There is nothing in life more profitable for people than these. ⁸And if anyone longs for wide experience, she knows the things of old, and infers the things to come. She understands subtleties of speeches and interpretations of dark sayings. She foresees signs and wonders, and the issues of seasons and times. ⁹Therefore I determined to take her to live with me, knowing that she is one who would give me good counsel, and encourage me in cares and grief. ¹⁰Because of her, I will have glory among multitudes, and honor in the sight of elders, though I am young. ¹¹I will be found keen when I give judgment. I will be admired in the presence of rulers. ¹²When I am silent, they will wait for me. When I open my lips, they will heed what I say. If I continue speaking, they will put their hands on their mouths. ¹³Because of her, I will have immortality, and leave behind an eternal memory to those who come after me. ¹⁴I will govern peoples. Nations will be subjected to me. ¹⁵Dreaded monarchs will fear me when they hear of me. Among the people, I will show myself to be good, and courageous in war. ¹⁶When I come into my house, I will find rest with her. For conversation with her has no bitterness, and living with her has no pain, but gladness and joy. ¹⁷When I considered these things in myself, and thought in my heart how immortality is in kinship to wisdom, ¹⁸and in her friendship is good delight, and in the labors of her hands is wealth that doesn’t fail, and understanding is in her companionship, and great renown in having fellowship with her words, I went about seeking how to take her to myself. ¹⁹Now I was a clever child, and received a good soul. ²⁰Or rather, being good, I came into an undefiled body. ²¹But perceiving that I could not otherwise possess wisdom unless God gave her to me— yes, and to know and understand by whom the grace is given— I pleaded with the Lord and implored him, and with my whole heart I said:

¹“O God of my ancestors and Lord of mercy, who made all things by your word; ²and by your wisdom you formed man, that he should have dominion over the creatures that were made by you, ³and rule the world in holiness and righteousness, and execute judgment in uprightness of soul, ⁴give me wisdom, her who sits by you on your thrones. Don’t reject me from among your servants, ⁵because I am your servant and the son of your handmaid, a weak and short-lived man, with little power to understand judgment and laws. ⁶For even if a man is perfect among the sons of men, if the wisdom that comes from you is not with him, he will count for nothing. ⁷You chose me to be king of your people, and a judge for your sons and daughters. ⁸You gave a command to build a sanctuary on your holy mountain, and an altar in the city where you live, a copy of the holy tent which you prepared from the beginning. ⁹Wisdom is with you and knows your works, and was present when you were making the world, and understands what is pleasing in your eyes, and what is right according to your commandments. ¹⁰Send her from the holy heavens, and ask her to come from the throne of your glory, that being present with me she may work, and I may learn what pleases you well. ¹¹For she knows all things and understands, and she will guide me prudently in my actions. She will guard me in her glory. ¹²So my works will be acceptible. I will judge your people righteously, and I will be worthy of my father’s throne. ¹³For what man will know the counsel of God? Or who will conceive what the Lord wills? ¹⁴For the thoughts of mortals are unstable, and our plans are prone to fail. ¹⁵For a corruptible body weighs down the soul. The earthy tent burdens a mind that is full of cares. ¹⁶We can hardly guess the things that are on earth, and we find the things that are close at hand with labor; but who has traced out the things that are in the heavens? ¹⁷Who gained knowledge of your counsel, unless you gave wisdom, and sent your holy spirit from on high? ¹⁸It was thus that the ways of those who are on earth were corrected, and men were taught the things that are pleasing to you. They were saved through wisdom.”

¹Wisdom guarded to the end the first formed father of the world, who was created alone, and delivered him out of his own transgression, ²and gave him strength to rule over all things. ³But when an unrighteous man fell away from her in his anger, he perished himself in the rage with which he killed his brother. ⁴When for his cause the earth was drowning with a flood, wisdom again saved it, guiding the righteous man’s course by a paltry piece of wood. ⁵Moreover, when nations consenting together in wickedness had been confounded, wisdom knew the righteous man, and preserved him blameless to God, and kept him strong when his heart yearned toward his child. ⁶While the ungodly were perishing, wisdom delivered a righteous man, when he fled from the fire that descended out of heaven on the five cities. ⁷To whose wickedness a smoking waste still witnesses, and plants bearing fair fruit that doesn’t ripen, a disbelieving soul has a memorial: a standing pillar of salt. ⁸For having passed wisdom by, not only were they disabled from recognising the things which are good, but they also left behind them for their life a monument of their folly, to the end that where they stumbled, they might fail even to be unseen; ⁹but wisdom delivered those who waited on her out of troubles. ¹⁰When a righteous man was a fugitive from a brother’s wrath, wisdom guided him in straight paths. She showed him God’s kingdom, and gave him knowledge of holy things. She prospered him in his toils, and multiplied the fruits of his labor. ¹¹When in their covetousness men dealt harshly with him, she stood by him and made him rich. ¹²She guarded him from enemies, and she kept him safe from those who lay in wait. Over his severe conflict, she watched as judge, that he might know that godliness is more powerful than every one. ¹³When a righteous man was sold, wisdom didn’t forsake him, but she delivered him from sin. She went down with him into a dungeon, ¹⁴and in bonds she didn’t depart from him, until she brought him the sceptre of a kingdom, and authority over those that dealt like a tyrant with him. She also showed those who had mockingly accused him to be false, and gave him eternal glory. ¹⁵Wisdom delivered a holy people and a blameless seed from a nation of oppressors. ¹⁶She entered into the soul of a servant of the Lord, and withstood terrible kings in wonders and signs. ¹⁷She rendered to holy men a reward of their toils. She guided them along a marvelous way, and became to them a covering in the day-time, and a starry flame through the night. ¹⁸She brought them over the Red sea, and led them through much water; ¹⁹but she drowned their enemies, and she cast them up from the bottom of the deep. ²⁰Therefore the righteous plundered the ungodly, and they sang praise to your holy name, O Lord, and extolled with one accord your hand that fought for them, ²¹because wisdom opened the mouth of the mute, and made the tongues of babes to speak clearly.

¹Wisdom prospered their works in the hand of a holy prophet. ²They traveled through a desert without inhabitant, and they pitched their tents in trackless regions. ³They withstood enemies and repelled foes. ⁴They thirsted, and they called upon you, and water was given to them out of the flinty rock, and healing of their thirst out of the hard stone. ⁵For by what things their foes were punished, by these they in their need were benefited. ⁶When enemies were troubled with clotted blood instead of a river’s ever-flowing fountain, ⁷to rebuke the decree for the slaying of babies, you gave them abundant water beyond all hope, ⁸having shown by the thirst which they had suffered how you punished the adversaries. ⁹For when they were tried, although chastened in mercy, they learned how the ungodly were tormented, being judged with wrath. ¹⁰For you tested these as a father admonishing them; but you searched out those as a stern king condemning them. ¹¹Yes and whether they were far off or near, they were equally distressed; ¹²for a double grief seized them, and a groaning at the memory of things past. ¹³For when they heard that through their own punishments the others benefited, they recognized the Lord. ¹⁴For him who long before was thrown out and exposed they stopped mocking. In the end of what happened, they marveled, having thirsted in another manner than the righteous. ¹⁵But in return for the senseless imaginings of their unrighteousness, wherein they were led astray to worship irrational reptiles and wretched vermin, you sent upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them, ¹⁶that they might learn that by what things a man sins, by these he is punished. ¹⁷For your all-powerful hand that created the world out of formless matter didn’t lack means to send upon them a multitude of bears, fierce lions, ¹⁸or newly-created and unknown wild beasts, full of rage, either breathing out a blast of fiery breath, or belching out smoke, or flashing dreadful sparks from their eyes; ¹⁹which had power not only to consume them by their violence, but to destroy them even by the terror of their sight. ²⁰Yes and without these they might have fallen by a single breath, being pursued by Justice, and scattered abroad by the breath of your power; but you arranged all things by measure, number, and weight. ²¹For to be greatly strong is yours at all times. Who could withstand the might of your arm? ²²Because the whole world before you is as a grain in a balance, and as a drop of dew that comes down upon the earth in the morning. ²³But you have mercy on all men, because you have power to do all things, and you overlook the sins of men to the end that they may repent. ²⁴For you love all things that are, and abhor none of the things which you made; For you never would have formed anything if you hated it. ²⁵How would anything have endured unless you had willed it? Or that which was not called by you, how would it have been preserved? ²⁶But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Sovereign Lord, you who love the living.

¹For your incorruptible spirit is in all things. ²Therefore you convict little by little those who fall from the right way, and, putting them in remembrance by the things wherein they sin, you admonish them, that escaping from their wickedness they may believe in you, O Lord. ³For truly the old inhabitants of your holy land, ⁴hating them because they practiced detestable works of enchantments and unholy rites— ⁵merciless slaughters of children and sacrificial banquets of men’s flesh and of blood— ⁶allies in an impious fellowship, and murderers of their own helpless babes, it was your counsel to destroy by the hands of our fathers; ⁷that the land which in your sight is most precious of all might receive a worthy colony of God’s servants. ⁸Nevertheless you even spared these as men, and you sent hornets as forerunners of your army, to cause them to perish little by little. ⁹Not that you were unable to subdue the ungodly under the hand of the righteous in battle, or by terrible beasts or by a stern word to make away with them at once, ¹⁰but judging them little by little you gave them a chance to repent, not being ignorant that their nature by birth was evil, their wickedness inborn, and that their manner of thought would never be changed. ¹¹For they were a cursed seed from the beginning. It wasn’t through fear of any that you left them unpunished for their sins. ¹²For who will say, “What have you done?” Or “Who will withstand your judgment?” Who will accuse you for the perishing of nations which you caused? Or who will come and stand before you as an avenger for unrighteous men? ¹³For there isn’t any God beside you that cares for all, that you might show that you didn’t judge unrighteously. ¹⁴No king or prince will be able to confront you about those whom you have punished. ¹⁵But being righteous, you rule all things righteously, deeming it a thing alien from your power to condemn one who doesn’t deserve to be punished. ¹⁶For your strength is the source of righteousness, and your sovereignty over all makes you to forbear all. ¹⁷For when men don’t believe that you are perfect in power, you show your strength, and in dealing with those who think this, you confuse their boldness. ¹⁸But you, being sovereign in strength, judge in gentleness, and with great forbearance you govern us; for the power is yours whenever you desire it. ¹⁹But you taught your people by such works as these, how the righteous must be kind. You made your sons to have good hope, because you give repentance when men have sinned. ²⁰For if on those who were enemies of your servants and deserving of death, you took vengeance with so great deliberation and indulgence, giving them times and opportunities when they might escape from their wickedness, ²¹with how great care you judged your sons, to whose fathers you gave oaths and covenants of good promises! ²²Therefore while you chasten us, you scourge our enemies ten thousand times more, to the intent that we may ponder your goodness when we judge, and when we are judged may look for mercy. ²³Therefore also the unrighteous that lived in a life of folly, you tormented through their own abominations. ²⁴For truly they went astray very far in the ways of error, Taking as gods those animals which even among their enemies were held in dishonor, deceived like foolish babes. ²⁵Therefore, as to unreasoning children, you sent your judgment to mock them. ²⁶But those who would not be admonished by mild correction will experience the deserved judgment of God. ²⁷For through the sufferings they were indignant of, being punished in these creatures which they supposed to be gods, they saw and recognized as the true God him whom they previously refused to know. Therefore also the result of extreme condemnation came upon them.

¹For truly all men who had no perception of God were foolish by nature, and didn’t gain power to know him who exists from the good things that are seen. They didn’t recognize the architect from his works. ²But they thought that either fire, or wind, or swift air, or circling stars, or raging water, or luminaries of heaven were gods that rule the world. ³If it was through delight in their beauty that they took them to be gods, let them know how much better their Sovereign Lord is than these, for the first author of beauty created them. ⁴But if it was through astonishment at their power and influence, then let them understand from them how much more powerful he who formed them is. ⁵For from the greatness of the beauty of created things, mankind forms the corresponding perception of their Maker. ⁶But yet for these men there is but small blame, for they too perhaps go astray while they are seeking God and desiring to find him. ⁷For they diligently search while living among his works, and they trust their sight that the things that they look at are beautiful. ⁸But again even they are not to be excused. ⁹For if they had power to know so much, that they should be able to explore the world, how is it that they didn’t find the Sovereign Lord sooner? ¹⁰But they were miserable, and their hopes were in dead things, who called them gods which are works of men’s hands, gold and silver, skillfully made, and likenesses of animals, or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand. ¹¹Yes and some woodcutter might saw down a tree that is easily moved, skillfully strip away all its bark, and fashion it in attractive form, make a useful vessel to serve his life’s needs. ¹²Burning the scraps from his handiwork to cook his food, he eats his fill. ¹³Taking a discarded scrap which served no purpose, a crooked piece of wood and full of knots, he carves it with the diligence of his idleness, and shapes it by the skill of his idleness. He shapes it in the image of a man, ¹⁴or makes it like some worthless animal, smearing it with something red, painting it red, and smearing over every stain in it. ¹⁵Having made a worthy chamber for it, he sets it in a wall, securing it with iron. ¹⁶He plans for it that it may not fall down, knowing that it is unable to help itself (for truly it is an image, and needs help). ¹⁷When he makes his prayer concerning goods and his marriage and children, he is not ashamed to speak to that which has no life. ¹⁸Yes, for health, he calls upon that which is weak. For life, he implores that which is dead. For aid, he supplicates that which has no experience. For a good journey, he asks that which can’t so much as move a step. ¹⁹And for profit in business and good success of his hands, he asks ability from that which has hands with no ability.

¹Again, one preparing to sail, and about to journey over raging waves, calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the vessel that carries him. ²For the hunger for profit planned it, and wisdom was the craftsman who built it. ³Your providence, O Father, guides it along, because even in the sea you gave a way, and in the waves a sure path, ⁴showing that you can save out of every danger, that even a man without skill may put to sea. ⁵It is your will that the works of your wisdom should not be ineffective. Therefore men also entrust their lives to a little piece of wood, and passing through the surge on a raft come safely to land. ⁶For in the old time also, when proud giants were perishing, the hope of the world, taking refuge on a raft, your hand guided the seed of generations of the race of men. ⁷For blessed is wood through which comes righteousness; ⁸but the idol made with hands is accursed, itself and he that made it; because his was the working, and the corruptible thing was called a god. ⁹For both the ungodly and his ungodliness are alike hateful to God; ¹⁰for truly the deed will be punished together with him who committed it. ¹¹Therefore also there will be a visitation among the idols of the nation, because, though formed of things which God created, they were made an abomination, stumbling blocks to the souls of men, and a snare to the feet of the foolish. ¹²For the devising of idols was the beginning of fornication, and the invention of them the corruption of life. ¹³For they didn’t exist from the beginning, and they won’t exist forever. ¹⁴For by the boastfulness of men they entered into the world, and therefore a speedy end was planned for them. ¹⁵For a father worn with untimely grief, making an image of the child quickly taken away, now honored him as a god which was then a dead human being, and delivered to those that were under him mysteries and solemn rites. ¹⁶Afterward the ungodly custom, in process of time grown strong, was kept as a law, and the engraved images received worship by the commandments of princes. ¹⁷And when men could not honor them in presence because they lived far off, imagining the likeness from afar, they made a visible image of the king whom they honored, that by their zeal they might flatter the absent as if present. ¹⁸But worship was raised to a yet higher pitch, even by those who didn’t know him, urged forward by the ambition of the architect; ¹⁹for he, wishing perhaps to please his ruler, used his art to force the likeness toward a greater beauty. ²⁰So the multitude, allured by reason of the grace of his handiwork, now consider an object of devotion him that a little before was honored as a man. ²¹And this became an ambush, because men, in bondage either to calamity or to tyranny, invested stones and stocks with the Name that shouldn’t be shared. ²²Afterward it was not enough for them to go astray concerning the knowledge of God, but also, while they live in a great war of ignorance, they call a multitude of evils peace. ²³For either slaughtering children in solemn rites, or celebrating secret mysteries, or holding frenzied revels of strange customs, ²⁴no longer do they guard either life or purity of marriage, but one brings upon another either death by treachery, or anguish by adultery. ²⁵And all things confusedly are filled with blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury, ²⁶confusion about what is good, forgetfulness of favors, ingratitude for benefits, defiling of souls, confusion of sex, disorder in marriage, adultery and wantonness. ²⁷For the worship of idols that may not be named is a beginning and cause and end of every evil. ²⁸For their worshipers either make merry to madness, or prophesy lies, or live unrighteously, or lightly commit perjury. ²⁹For putting their trust in lifeless idols, when they have sworn a wicked oath, they expect not to suffer harm. ³⁰But on both counts, the just doom will pursue them, because they had evil thoughts of God by giving heed to idols, and swore unrighteously in deceit through contempt for holiness. ³¹For it is not the power of things by which men swear, but it is the just penalty for those who sin that always visits the transgression of the unrighteous.

¹But you, our God, are gracious and true, patient, and in mercy ordering all things. ²For even if we sin, we are yours, knowing your dominion; but we will not sin, knowing that we have been accounted yours. ³For to be acquainted with you is perfect righteousness, and to know your dominion is the root of immortality. ⁴For we weren’t led astray by any evil plan of men’s, nor yet by painters’ fruitless labor, a form stained with varied colors, ⁵the sight of which leads fools into lust. Their desire is for the breathless form of a dead image. ⁶Lovers of evil things, and worthy of such hopes, are those who make, desire, and worship them. ⁷For a potter, kneading soft earth, laboriously molds each article for our service. He fashions out of the same clay both the vessels that minister to clean uses, and those of a contrary sort, all in like manner. What shall be the use of each article of either sort, the potter is the judge. ⁸Also, laboring to an evil end, he molds a vain god out of the same clay, he who, having but a little before been made of earth, after a short space goes his way to the earth out of which he was taken, when he is required to give back the soul which was lent him. ⁹However he has anxious care, not because his powers must fail, nor because his span of life is short; But he compares himself with goldsmiths and silversmiths, and he imitates molders in brass, and considers it great that he molds counterfeit gods. ¹⁰His heart is ashes. His hope is of less value than earth. His life is of less honor than clay, ¹¹because he was ignorant of him who molded him, and of him that inspired into him an active soul, and breathed into him a vital spirit. ¹²But he accounted our life to be a game, and our lifetime a festival for profit; for, he says, one must get gain however one can, even if it is by evil. ¹³For this man, beyond all others, knows that he sins, out of earthy matter making brittle vessels and engraved images. ¹⁴But most foolish and more miserable than a baby, are the enemies of your people, who oppressed them; ¹⁵because they even considered all the idols of the nations to be gods, which have neither the use of eyes for seeing, nor nostrils for drawing breath, nor ears to hear, nor fingers for handling, and their feet are helpless for walking. ¹⁶For a man made them, and one whose own spirit is borrowed molded them; for no one has power as a man to mold a god like himself. ¹⁷But, being mortal, he makes a dead thing by the work of lawless hands; for he is better than the objects of his worship, since he indeed had life, but they never did. ¹⁸Yes, and they worship the creatures that are most hateful, for, being compared as to lack of sense, these are worse than all others; ¹⁹Neither, as seen beside other creatures, are they beautiful, so that one should desire them, but they have escaped both the praise of God and his blessing.

¹For this cause, they were deservedly punished through creatures like those which they worship, and tormented through a multitude of vermin. ²Instead of this punishment, you, giving benefits to your people, prepared quails for food, a delicacy to satisfy the desire of their appetite, ³to the end that your enemies, desiring food, might for the hideousness of the creatures sent among them, loathe even the necessary appetite; but these, your people, having for a short time suffered lack, might even partake of delicacies. ⁴For it was necessary that inescapable lack should come upon those oppressors, but that to these it should only be showed how their enemies were tormented. ⁵For even when terrible raging of wild beasts came upon your people, and they were perishing by the bites of crooked serpents, your wrath didn’t continue to the uttermost; ⁶but for admonition were they troubled for a short time, having a token of salvation to put them in remembrance of the commandment of your law; ⁷for he who turned toward it was not saved because of that which was seen, but because of you, the Savior of all. ⁸Yes, and in this you persuaded our enemies that you are he who delivers out of every evil. ⁹For the bites of locusts and flies truly killed them. No healing for their life was found, because they were worthy to be punished by such things. ¹⁰But your children weren’t overcome by the very fangs of venomous dragons, for your mercy passed by where they were and healed them. ¹¹For they were bitten to put them in remembrance of your oracles, and were quickly saved, lest, falling into deep forgetfulness, they should become unable to respond to your kindness. ¹²For truly it was neither herb nor poultice that cured them, but your word, O Lord, which heals all people. ¹³For you have authority over life and death, and you lead down to the gates of Hades, and lead up again. ¹⁴But though a man kills by his wickedness, he can’t retrieve the spirit that has departed or release the imprisoned soul. ¹⁵But it is not possible to escape your hand; ¹⁶for ungodly men, refusing to know you, were scourged in the strength of your arm, pursued with strange rains and hails and relentless storms, and utterly consumed with fire. ¹⁷For, what was most marvelous, in the water which quenches all things, the fire burned hotter; for the world fights for the righteous. ¹⁸For at one time the flame was restrained, that it might not burn up the creatures sent against the ungodly, but that these themselves as they looked might see that they were chased by the judgment of God. ¹⁹At another time even in the midst of water it burns more intensely than fire, that it may destroy the produce of an unrighteous land. ²⁰Instead of these things, you gave your people angels’ food to eat, and you provided ready-to-eat bread for them from heaven without toil, having the virtue of every pleasant flavor, and agreeable to every taste. ²¹For your nature showed your sweetness toward your children, while that bread, serving the desire of the eater, changed itself according to every man’s choice. ²²But snow and ice endured fire, and didn’t melt, that people might know that fire was destroying the fruits of the enemies, burning in the hail and flashing in the rains; ²³and that this fire, again, in order that righteous people may be nourished, has even forgotten its own power. ²⁴For the creation, ministering to you, its maker, strains its force against the unrighteous for punishment and in kindness, slackens it on behalf of those who trust in you. ²⁵Therefore at that time also, converting itself into all forms, it ministered to your all-nourishing bounty, according to the desire of those who had need, ²⁶that your children, whom you loved, O Lord, might learn that it is not the growth of crops that nourishes a man, but that your word preserves those who trust you. ²⁷For that which was not destroyed by fire, melted away when it was simply warmed by a faint sunbeam, ²⁸that it might be known that we must rise before the sun to give you thanks, and must pray to you at the dawning of the light; ²⁹for the hope of the unthankful will melt as the winter’s hoar frost, and will flow away as water that has no use.

¹For your judgments are great, and hard to interpret; therefore undisciplined souls went astray. ²For when lawless men had supposed that they held a holy nation in their power, they, prisoners of darkness, and bound in the fetters of a long night, kept close beneath their roofs, lay exiled from the eternal providence. ³For while they thought that they were unseen in their secret sins, they were divided from one another by a dark curtain of forgetfulness, stricken with terrible awe, and very troubled by apparitions. ⁴For neither did the dark recesses that held them guard them from fears, but terrifying sounds rang around them, and dismal phantoms appeared with unsmiling faces. ⁵And no power of fire prevailed to give light, neither were the brightest flames of the stars strong enough to illuminate that gloomy night; ⁶but only the glimmering of a self-kindled fire appeared to them, full of fear. In terror, they considered the things which they saw to be worse than that sight, on which they could not gaze. ⁷The mockeries of their magic arts were powerless, now, and a shameful rebuke of their boasted understanding: ⁸For those who promised to drive away terrors and disorders from a sick soul, these were sick with a ludicrous fearfulness. ⁹For even if no troubling thing frighted them, yet, scared with the creeping of vermin and hissing of serpents, ¹⁰they perished trembling in fear, refusing even to look at the air, which could not be escaped on any side. ¹¹For wickedness, condemned by a witness within, is a coward thing, and, being pressed hard by conscience, always has added forecasts of the worst. ¹²For fear is nothing else but a surrender of the help which reason offers; ¹³and from within, the expectation of being less prefers ignorance of the cause that brings the torment. ¹⁴But they, all through the night which was powerless indeed, and which came upon them out of the recesses of powerless Hades, sleeping the same sleep, ¹⁵now were haunted by monstrous apparitions, and now were paralyzed by their soul’s surrendering; for sudden and unexpected fear came upon them. ¹⁶So then whoever it might be, sinking down in his place, was kept captive, shut up in that prison which was not barred with iron; ¹⁷for whether he was a farmer, or a shepherd, or a laborer whose toils were in the wilderness, he was overtaken, and endured that inescapable sentence; for they were all bound with one chain of darkness. ¹⁸Whether there was a whistling wind, or a melodious sound of birds among the spreading branches, or a measured fall of water running violently, ¹⁹or a harsh crashing of rocks hurled down, or the swift course of animals bounding along unseen, or the voice of wild beasts harshly roaring, or an echo rebounding from the hollows of the mountains, all these things paralyzed them with terror. ²⁰For the whole world was illuminated with clear light, and was occupied with unhindered works, ²¹while over them alone was spread a heavy night, an image of the darkness that should afterward receive them; but to themselves, they were heavier than darkness.

¹But for your holy ones there was great light. Their enemies, hearing their voice but not seeing their form, counted it a happy thing that they too had suffered, ²yet for that they do not hurt them, though wronged by them before, they are thankful; and because they had been at variance with them, they begged for pardon. ³Therefore you provided a burning pillar of fire, to be a guide for your people’s unknown journey, and a harmless sun for their glorious exile. ⁴For the Egyptians well deserved to be deprived of light and imprisoned by darkness, they who had imprisoned your children, through whom the incorruptible light of the law was to be given to the race of men. ⁵After they had taken counsel to kill the babes of the holy ones, and when a single child had been abandoned and saved to convict them of their sin, you took away from them their multitude of children, and destroyed all their army together in a mighty flood. ⁶Our fathers were made aware of that night beforehand, that, having sure knowledge, they might be cheered by the oaths which they had trusted. ⁷Salvation of the righteous and destruction of the enemies was expected by your people. ⁸For as you took vengeance on the adversaries, by the same means, calling us to yourself, you glorified us. ⁹For holy children of good men offered sacrifice in secret, and with one consent they agreed to the covenant of the divine law, that they would partake alike in the same good things and the same perils, the fathers already leading the sacred songs of praise. ¹⁰But the discordant cry of the enemies echoed back, and a pitiful voice of lamentation for children was spread abroad. ¹¹Both servant and master were punished with the same just doom, and the commoner suffering the same as king; ¹²Yes, they all together, under one form of death, had corpses without number. For the living were not sufficient even to bury them, Since at a single stroke, their most cherished offspring was consumed. ¹³For while they were disbelieving all things by reason of the enchantments, upon the destruction of the firstborn they confessed the people to be God’s children. ¹⁴For while peaceful silence wrapped all things, and night in her own swiftness was half spent, ¹⁵your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, a stern warrior, into the midst of the doomed land, ¹⁶bearing as a sharp sword your authentic commandment, and standing, it filled all things with death, and while it touched the sky it stood upon the earth. ¹⁷Then immediately apparitions in dreams terribly troubled them, and unexpected fears came upon them. ¹⁸And each, one thrown here half dead, another there, made known why he was dying; ¹⁹for the dreams, disturbing them, forewarned them of this, that they might not perish without knowing why they were afflicted. ²⁰The experience of death also touched the righteous, and a multitude were destroyed in the wilderness, but the wrath didn’t last long. ²¹For a blameless man hurried to be their champion, bringing the weapon of his own ministry, prayer, and the atoning sacrifice of incense. He withstood the indignation and set an end to the calamity, showing that he was your servant. ²²And he overcame the anger, not by strength of body, not by force of weapons, but by his word, he subdued the avenger by bringing to remembrance oaths and covenants made with the fathers. ²³For when the dead had already fallen in heaps one upon another, he intervened and stopped the wrath, and cut off its way to the living. ²⁴For the whole world was pictured on his long robe, and the glories of the fathers were upon the engraving of the four rows of precious stones, and your majesty was upon the diadem on his head. ²⁵The destroyer yielded to these, and they feared; for it was enough only to test the wrath.

¹But indignation without mercy came upon the ungodly to the end; for God also foreknew their future, ²how, having changed their minds to let your people go, and having sped them eagerly on their way, they would change their minds and pursue them. ³For while they were yet in the midst of their mourning, and lamenting at the graves of the dead, they made another foolish decision, and pursued as fugitives those whom they had begged to leave and driven out. ⁴For the doom which they deserved was drawing them to this end, and it made them forget the things that had happened to them, that they might fill up the punishment which was yet lacking from their torments, ⁵and that your people might journey on by a marvelous road, but they themselves might find a strange death. ⁶For the whole creation, each part in its diverse kind, was made new again, complying with your commandments, that your servants might be kept unharmed. ⁷Then the cloud that overshadowed the camp was seen, and dry land rising up out of what had been water, out of the Red sea an unhindered highway, and a grassy plain out of the violent surge, ⁸by which they passed over with all their army, these who were covered with your hand, having seen strange marvels. ⁹For like horses they roamed at large, and they skipped about like lambs, praising you, O Lord, who was their deliverer. ¹⁰For they still remembered the things that happened in the time of their sojourning, how instead of bearing cattle, the land brought forth lice, and instead of fish, the river spewed out a multitude of frogs. ¹¹But afterwards, they also saw a new kind of birds, when, led on by desire, they asked for luxurious dainties; ¹²for, to comfort them, quails came up for them from the sea. ¹³Punishments came upon the sinners, not without the signs that were given beforehand by the violence of the thunder, for they justly suffered through their own wickednesses, for the hatred which they practiced toward guests was grievous indeed. ¹⁴For while the others didn’t receive the strangers when they came to them, the Egyptians made slaves of guests who were their benefactors. ¹⁵And not only so, but while punishment of some sort will come upon the former, since they received as enemies those who were aliens; ¹⁶because these first welcomed with feastings, and then afflicted with dreadful toils, those who had already shared with them in the same rights. ¹⁷And moreover they were stricken with loss of sight (even as were those others at the righteous man’s doors), when, being surrounded with yawning darkness, they each looked for the passage through his own door. ¹⁸For as the notes of a lute vary the character of the rhythm, even so the elements, changing their order one with another, continuing always in its sound, as may clearly be conjectured from the sight of the things that have happened. ¹⁹For creatures of the dry land were turned into creatures of the waters, and creatures that swim moved upon the land. ²⁰Fire kept the mastery of its own power in water, and water forgot its quenching nature. ²¹On the contrary, flames didn’t consume flesh of perishable creatures that walked among them, neither did they melt the crystalline grains of ambrosial food that were melted easily. ²²For in all things, O Lord, you magnified your people, and you glorified them and didn’t lightly regard them, standing by their side in every time and place.