Wisdom 1:1-6:21
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
1 Love justice, you that are the judges of the earth. Think of the Lord in goodness, and seek him in simplicity of heart.
2 For he is found by them that tempt him not: and he sheweth himself to them that have faith in him.
3 For perverse thoughts separate from God: and his power, when it is tried, reproveth the unwise:
4 For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins.
5 For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful, and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and he shall not abide when iniquity cometh in.
6 For the spirit of wisdom is benevolent, and will not acquit the evil speaker from his lips: for God is witness of his reins, and he is a true searcher of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue.
7 For the spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world: and that, which containeth all things, hath knowledge of the voice.
8 Therefore he that speaketh unjust things cannot be hid, neither shall the chastising judgment pass him by.
9 For inquisition shall be made into the thoughts of the ungodly: and the hearing of his words shall come to God, to the chastising of his iniquities.
10 For the ear of jealousy heareth all things, and the tumult of murmuring shall not be hid.
11 Keep yourselves therefore from murmuring, which profiteth nothing, and refrain your tongue from detraction, for an obscure speech shall not go for nought: and the mouth that belieth, killeth the soul.
12 Seek not death in the error of your life, neither procure ye destruction by the works of your hands.
13 For God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living.
14 For he created all things that they might be: and he made the nations of the earth for health: and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor kingdom of hell upon the earth.
15 For justice is perpetual and immortal.
16 But the wicked with works and words have called it to them: and esteeming it a friend have fallen away, and have made a covenant with it: because they are worthy to be of the part thereof.
2 For they have said, reasoning with themselves, but not right: The time of our life is short and tedious, and in the end of a man there is no remedy, and no man hath been known to have returned from hell:
2 For we are born of nothing, and after this we shall be as if we had not been: for the breath in our nostrils is smoke: and speech a spark to move our heart,
3 Which being put out, our body shall be ashes, and our spirit shall be poured abroad as soft air, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, which is driven away by the beams of the sun, and overpowered with the heat thereof:
4 And our name in time shall be forgotten, and no man shall have any remembrance of our works.
5 For our time is as the passing of a shadow, and there is no going back of our end: for it is fast sealed, and no man returneth.
6 Come therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that are present, and let us speedily use the creatures as in youth.
7 Let us fill ourselves with costly wine, and ointments: and let not the flower of the time pass by us.
8 Let us crown ourselves with roses, before they be withered: let no meadow escape our riot.
9 Let none of us go without his part in luxury: let us everywhere leave tokens of joy: for this is our portion, and this our lot.
10 Let us oppress the poor just man, and not spare the widow, nor honour the ancient grey hairs of the aged.
11 But let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble, is found to be nothing worth.
12 Let us therefore lie in wait for the just, because he is not for our turn, and he is contrary to our doings, and upbraideth us with transgressions of the law, and divulgeth against us the sins of our way of life.
13 He boasteth that he hath the knowledge of God, and calleth himself the son of God.
14 He is become a censurer of our thoughts.
15 He is grievous unto us, even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, and his ways are very different.
16 We are esteemed by him as triflers, and he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness, and he preferreth the latter end of the just, and glorieth that he hath God for his father.
17 Let us see then if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen to him, and we shall know what his end shall be.
18 For if he be the true son of God, he will defend him, and will deliver him from the hands of his enemies.
19 Let us examine him by outrages and tortures, that we may know his meekness and try his patience.
20 Let us condemn him to a most shameful death: for there shall be respect had unto him by his words.
21 These things they thought, and were deceived: for their own malice blinded them.
22 And they knew not the secrets of God, nor hoped for the wages of justice, nor esteemed the honour of holy souls.
23 For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his own likeness he made him.
24 But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world:
25 And they follow him that are of his side.
3 But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them.
2 In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure was taken for misery:
3 And their going away from us, for utter destruction: but they are in peace.
4 And though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality.
5 Afflicted in few things, in many they shall be well rewarded: because God hath tried them, and found them worthy of himself.
6 As gold in the furnace he hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust he hath received them, and in time there shall be respect had to them.
7 The just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the reeds.
8 They shall judge nations, and rule over people, and their Lord shall reign for ever.
9 They that trust in him, shall understand the truth: and they that are faithful in love shall rest in him: for grace and peace is to his elect.
10 But the wicked shall be punished according to their own devices: who have neglected the just, and have revolted from the Lord.
11 For he that rejecteth wisdom, and discipline, is unhappy: and their hope is vain, and their labours without fruit, and their works unprofitable.
12 Their wives are foolish, and their children wicked.
13 Their offspring is cursed: for happy is the barren: and the undefiled, that hath not known bed in sin: she shall have fruit in the visitation of holy souls.
14 And the eunuch, that hath not wrought iniquity with his hands, nor thought wicked things against God: for the precious gift of faith shall be given to him, and a most acceptable lot in the temple of God.
15 For the fruit of good labours is glorious, and the root of wisdom never faileth.
16 But the children of adulterers shall not come to perfection, and the seed of the unlawful bed shall be rooted out.
17 And if they live long, they shall be nothing regarded, and their last old age shall be without honour.
18 And if they die quickly, they shall have no hope, nor speech of comfort in the day of trial.
19 For dreadful are the ends of a wicked race.
4 O how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory: for the memory thereof is immortal: because it is known both with God and with men.
2 When it is present, they imitate it: and they desire it when it hath withdrawn itself, and it triumpheth crowned for ever, winning the reward of undefiled conflicts.
3 But the multiplied brood of the wicked shall not thrive, and bastard slips shall not take deep root, nor any fast foundation.
4 And if they flourish in branches for a time, yet standing not fast, they shall be shaken with the wind, and through the force of winds they shall be rooted out.
5 For the branches not being perfect, shall be broken, and their fruits shall be unprofitable, and sour to eat, and fit for nothing.
6 For the children that are born of unlawful beds, are witnesses of wickedness against their parents in their trial.
7 But the just man, if he be prevented with death, shall be in rest.
8 For venerable old age is not that of long time, nor counted by the number of years: but the understanding of a man is grey hairs.
9 And a spotless life is old age.
10 He pleased God and was beloved, and living among sinners he was translated.
11 He was taken away lest wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul.
12 For the bewitching of vanity obscureth good things, and the wandering of concupiscence overturneth the innocent mind.
13 Being made perfect in a short space, he fulfilled a long time:
14 For his soul pleased God: therefore he hastened to bring him out of the midst of iniquities: but the people see this, and understand not, nor lay up such things in their hearts:
15 That the grace of God, and his mercy is with his saints, and that he hath respect to his chosen.
16 But the just that is dead, condemneth the wicked that are living, and youth soon ended, the long life of the unjust.
17 For they shall see the end of the wise man, and shall not understand what God hath designed for him, and why the Lord hath set him in safety.
18 They shall see him, and shall despise him: but the Lord shall laugh them to scorn.
19 And they shall fall after this without honour, and be a reproach among the dead for ever: for he shall burst them puffed up and speechless, and shall shake them from the foundations, and they shall be utterly laid waste: they shall be in sorrow, and their memory shall perish.
20 They shall come with fear at the thought of their sins, and their iniquities shall stand against them to convict them.
5 Then shall the just stand with great constancy against those that have afflicted them, and taken away their labours.
2 These seeing it, shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the suddenness of their unexpected salvation.
3 Saying within themselves, repenting, and groaning for anguish of spirit: These are they, whom we had some time in derision, and for a parable of reproach.
4 We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honour.
5 Behold how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints.
6 Therefore we have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice hath not shined unto us, and the sun of understanding hath not risen upon us.
7 We wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and have walked through hard ways, but the way of the Lord we have not known.
8 What hath pride profited us? or what advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us?
9 All those things are passed away like a shadow, and like a post that runneth on,
10 And as a ship that passeth through the waves: whereof when it is gone by, the trace cannot be found, nor the path of its keel in the waters:
11 Or as when a bird flieth through the air, of the passage of which no mark can be found, but only the sound of the wings beating the light air, and parting it by the force of her flight; she moved her wings, and hath flown through, and there is no mark found afterwards of her way:
12 Or as when an arrow is shot at a mark, the divided air presently cometh together again, so that the passage thereof is not known:
13 So we also being born, forthwith ceased to be: and have been able to shew no mark of virtue: but are consumed in our wickedness.
14 Such things as these the sinners said in hell:
15 For the hope of the wicked is as dust, which is blown away with the wind, and as a thin froth which is dispersed by the storm: and a smoke that is scattered abroad by the wind: and as the remembrance of a guest of one day that passeth by.
16 But the just shall live for evermore: and their reward is with the Lord, and the care of them with the most High.
17 Therefore shall they receive a kingdom of glory, and a crown of beauty at the hand of the Lord: for with his right hand he will cover them, and with his holy arm he will defend them.
18 And his zeal will take armour, and he will arm the creature for the revenge of his enemies.
19 He will put on justice as a breastplate, and will take true judgment instead of a helmet.
20 He will take equity for an invincible shield:
21 And he will sharpen his severe wrath for a spear, and the whole world shall fight with him against the unwise.
22 Then shafts of lightning shall go directly from the clouds, as from a bow well bent, they shall be shot out, and shall fly to the mark.
23 And thick hail shall be cast upon them from the stone casting wrath: the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the rivers shall run together in a terrible manner.
24 A mighty wind shall stand up against them, and as a whirlwind shall divide them: and their iniquity shall bring all the earth to a desert, and wickedness shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty.
6 Wisdom is better than strength, and a wise man is better than a strong man.
2 Hear therefore, ye kings, and understand: learn, ye that are judges of the ends of the earth.
3 Give ear, you that rule the people, and that please yourselves in multitudes of nations:
4 For power is given you by the Lord, and strength by the most High, who will examine your works, and search out your thoughts:
5 Because being ministers of his kingdom, you have not judged rightly, nor kept the law of justice, nor walked according to the will of God.
6 Horribly and speedily will he appear to you: for a most severe judgment shall be for them that bear rule.
7 For to him that is little, mercy is granted: but the mighty shall be mightily tormented.
8 For God will not except any man's person, neither will he stand in awe of any man's greatness: for he made the little and the great, and he hath equally care of all.
9 But a greater punishment is ready for the more mighty.
10 To you, therefore, O kings, are these my words, that you may learn wisdom, and not fall from it.
11 For they that have kept just things justly, shall be justified: and they that have learned these things, shall find what to answer.
12 Covet ye therefore my words, and love them, and you shall have instruction.
13 Wisdom is glorious, and never fadeth away, and is easily seen by them that love her, and is found by them that seek her.
14 She preventeth them that covet her, so that she first sheweth herself unto them.
15 He that awaketh early to seek her, shall not labour: for he shall find her sitting at his door.
16 To think therefore upon her, is perfect understanding: and he that watcheth for her, shall quickly be secure.
17 For she goeth about seeking such as are worthy of her, and she sheweth herself to them cheerfully in the ways, and meeteth them with all providence.
18 For the beginning of her is the most true desire of discipline.
19 And the care of discipline is love: and love is the keeping of her laws: and the keeping of her laws is the firm foundation of incorruption:
20 And incorruption bringeth near to God.
21 Therefore the desire of wisdom bringeth to the everlasting kingdom.
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