Wisdom of Solomon 10–12: You Love All Things That Are": Wisdom in History, and the Mercy of God
Scripture: World English Bible
Wisdom guarded to the end the first formed father of the world, who was created alone,and delivered him out of his own transgression,and gave him strength to rule over all things.But when an unrighteous man fell away from her in his anger,he perished himself in the rage with which he killed his brother.When 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.
Moreover, 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.
While the ungodly were perishing, wisdom delivered a righteous man,when he fled from the fire that descended out of heaven on the five cities.To 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.For 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;but wisdom delivered those who waited on her out of troubles.
When 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.When in their covetousness men dealt harshly with him,she stood by him and made him rich.She 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.
When a righteous man was sold, wisdom didn’t forsake him,but she delivered him from sin.She went down with him into a dungeon,and 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.
Wisdom delivered a holy people and a blameless seed from a nation of oppressors.She entered into the soul of a servant of the Lord,and withstood terrible kings in wonders and signs.She 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.She brought them over the Red sea,and led them through much water;but she drowned their enemies,and she cast them up from the bottom of the deep.Therefore 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,because wisdom opened the mouth of the mute,and made the tongues of babes to speak clearly.
Wisdom prospered their works in the hand of a holy prophet.
They traveled through a desert without inhabitant,and they pitched their tents in trackless regions.They withstood enemies and repelled foes.They 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.For by what things their foes were punished,by these they in their need were benefited.When enemies were troubled with clotted bloodinstead of a river’s ever-flowing fountain,to rebuke the decree for the slaying of babies,you gave them abundant water beyond all hope,having shown by the thirst which they had sufferedhow you punished the adversaries.For when they were tried, although chastened in mercy,they learned how the ungodly were tormented, being judged with wrath.For you tested these as a father admonishing them;but you searched out those as a stern king condemning them.Yes and whether they were far off or near,they were equally distressed;for a double grief seized them,and a groaning at the memory of things past.For when they heard that through their own punishments the others benefited,they recognized the Lord.For 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.
But 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,that they might learn that by what things a man sins, by these he is punished.For your all-powerful handthat created the world out of formless matterdidn’t lack means to send upon them a multitude of bears, fierce lions,or 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;which had power not only to consume them by their violence,but to destroy them even by the terror of their sight.Yes 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.
For to be greatly strong is yours at all times.Who could withstand the might of your arm?Because 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.But 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.For 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.How would anything have endured unless you had willed it?Or that which was not called by you, how would it have been preserved?But you spare all things, because they are yours,O Sovereign Lord, you who love the living.For your incorruptible spirit is in all things.Therefore 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.
For truly the old inhabitants of your holy land,hating them because they practiced detestable works of enchantments and unholy rites—merciless slaughters of childrenand sacrificial banquets of men’s flesh and of blood—allies in an impious fellowship,and murderers of their own helpless babes,it was your counsel to destroy by the hands of our fathers;that the land which in your sight is most precious of allmight receive a worthy colony of God’s servants.Nevertheless you even spared these as men,and you sent hornets as forerunners of your army,to cause them to perish little by little.Not 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,but 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.For they were a cursed seed from the beginning.It wasn’t through fear of any that you left them unpunished for their sins.
For 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?For there isn’t any God beside you that cares for all,that you might show that you didn’t judge unrighteously.No king or prince will be able to confront youabout those whom you have punished.But being righteous, you rule all things righteously,deeming it a thing alien from your powerto condemn one who doesn’t deserve to be punished.For your strength is the source of righteousness,and your sovereignty over all makes you to forbear all.For 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.But you, being sovereign in strength, judge in gentleness,and with great forbearance you govern us;for the power is yours whenever you desire it.
But 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.For 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,with how great care you judged your sons,to whose fathers you gave oaths and covenants of good promises!Therefore 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.
Therefore also the unrighteous that lived in a life of folly,you tormented through their own abominations.For 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.Therefore, as to unreasoning children, you sent your judgment to mock them.But those who would not be admonished by mild correctionwill experience the deserved judgment of God.For 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.