Wisdom 10-15

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

10 Wisdom^[a] protected the first-formed father of the world,
when he alone had been created;
she delivered him from his transgression,
² and gave him strength to rule all things.
³ But when an unrighteous man departed from her in his anger,
he perished because in rage he slew his brother.
⁴ When the earth was flooded because of him, wisdom again saved it,
steering the righteous man by a paltry piece of wood.

¹⁵ A holy people and blameless race
wisdom^[g] delivered from a nation of oppressors.
¹⁶ She entered the soul of a servant of the Lord,
and withstood dread kings with wonders and signs.
¹⁷ She gave holy men the reward of their labors;
she guided them along a marvelous way,
and became a shelter to them by day,
and a starry flame through the night.
¹⁸ She brought them over the Red Sea,
and led them through deep waters;
¹⁹ but she drowned their enemies,
and cast them up from the depth of the sea.
²⁰ Therefore the righteous plundered the ungodly;
they sang hymns, O Lord, to thy holy name,
and praised with one accord thy defending hand,
²¹ because wisdom opened the mouth of the dumb,
and made the tongues of babes speak clearly.

11 Wisdom^[h] prospered their works by the hand of a holy prophet.
² They journeyed through an uninhabited wilderness,
and pitched their tents in untrodden places.
³ They withstood their enemies and fought off their foes.
⁴ When they thirsted they called upon thee,
and water was given them out of flinty rock,
and slaking of thirst from hard stone.
⁵ For through the very things by which their enemies were punished,
they themselves received benefit in their need.
⁶ Instead of the fountain of an ever-flowing river,
stirred up and defiled with blood
⁷ in rebuke for the decree to slay the infants,
thou gavest them abundant water unexpectedly,
⁸ showing by their thirst at that time
how thou didst punish their enemies.
⁹ For when they were tried, though they were being disciplined in mercy,
they learned how the ungodly were tormented when judged in wrath.
¹⁰ For thou didst test them as a father does in warning,
but thou didst examine the ungodly^[i] as a stern king does in condemnation.
¹¹ Whether absent or present, they were equally distressed,
¹² for a twofold grief possessed them,
and a groaning at the memory of what had occurred.
¹³ For when they heard that through their own punishments
the righteous^[j] had received benefit, they perceived it was the Lord’s doing.
¹⁴ For though they had mockingly rejected him who long before had been cast out and exposed,
at the end of the events they marveled at him,
for their thirst was not like that of the righteous.

¹⁵ In return for their foolish and wicked thoughts,
which led them astray to worship irrational serpents and worthless animals,
thou didst send upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them,
¹⁶ that they might learn that one is punished by the very things by which he sins.
¹⁷ For thy all-powerful hand,
which created the world out of formless matter,
did not lack the means to send upon them a multitude of bears, or bold lions,
¹⁸ or newly created unknown beasts full of rage,
or such as breathe out fiery breath,
or belch forth a thick pall of smoke,
or flash terrible sparks from their eyes;
¹⁹ not only could their damage exterminate men,^[k]
but the mere sight of them could kill by fright.
²⁰ Even apart from these, men^[l] could fall at a single breath
when pursued by justice
and scattered by the breath of thy power.
But thou hast arranged all things by measure and number and weight.

²¹ For it is always in thy power to show great strength,
and who can withstand the might of thy arm?
²² Because the whole world before thee is like a speck that tips the scales,
and like a drop of morning dew that falls upon the ground.
²³ But thou art merciful to all, for thou canst do all things,
and thou dost overlook men’s sins, that they may repent.
²⁴ For thou lovest all things that exist,
and hast loathing for none of the things which thou hast made,
for thou wouldst not have made anything if thou hadst hated it.
²⁵ How would anything have endured if thou hadst not willed it?
Or how would anything not called forth by thee have been preserved?
²⁶ Thou sparest all things, for they are thine, O Lord who lovest the living.^[m]
12 For thy immortal spirit is in all things.
² Therefore thou dost correct little by little those who trespass,
and dost remind and warn them of the things wherein they sin,
that they may be freed from wickedness and put their trust in thee, O Lord.

³ Those who dwelt of old in thy holy land
⁴ thou didst hate for their detestable practices,
their works of sorcery and unholy rites,
⁵ their merciless slaughter^[n] of children,
and their sacrificial feasting on human flesh and blood.
These initiates from the midst of a heathen cult,^[o]
6 these parents who murder helpless lives,
thou didst will to destroy by the hands of our fathers,
⁷ that the land most precious of all to thee
might receive a worthy colony of the servants^[p] of God.
⁸ But even these thou didst spare, since they were but men,
and didst send wasps^[q] as forerunners of thy army,
to destroy them little by little,
⁹ though thou wast not unable to give the ungodly into the hands of the righteous in battle,
or to destroy them at one blow by dread wild beasts or thy stern word.
¹⁰ But judging them little by little thou gavest them a chance to repent,
though thou wast not unaware that their origin^[r] was evil
and their wickedness inborn,
and that their way of thinking would never change.
¹¹ For they were an accursed race from the beginning,
and it was not through fear of any one that thou didst leave them unpunished for their sins.

¹² For who will say, “What hast thou done?”
Or will resist thy judgment?
Who will accuse thee for the destruction of nations which thou didst make?
Or who will come before thee to plead as an advocate for unrighteous men?
¹³ For neither is there any god besides thee, whose care is for all men,^[s]
to whom thou shouldst prove that thou hast not judged unjustly;
¹⁴ nor can any king or monarch confront thee about those whom thou hast punished.
¹⁵ Thou art righteous and rulest all things righteously,
deeming it alien to thy power
to condemn him who does not deserve to be punished.
¹⁶ For thy strength is the source of righteousness,
and thy sovereignty over all causes thee to spare all.
¹⁷ For thou dost show thy strength when men doubt the completeness of thy power,
and dost rebuke any insolence among those who know it.^[t]
18 Thou who art sovereign in strength dost judge with mildness,
and with great forbearance thou dost govern us;
for thou hast power to act whenever thou dost choose.

¹⁹ Through such works thou has taught thy people
that the righteous man must be kind,
and thou hast filled thy sons with good hope,
because thou givest repentance for sins.
²⁰ For if thou didst punish with such great care and indulgence^[u]
the enemies of thy servants^[v] and those deserving of death,
granting them time and opportunity to give up their wickedness,
²¹ with what strictness thou hast judged thy sons,
to whose fathers thou gavest oaths and covenants full of good promises!
²² So while chastening us thou scourgest our enemies ten thousand times more,
so that we may meditate upon thy goodness when we judge,
and when we are judged we may expect mercy.

²³ Therefore those who in folly of life lived unrighteously
thou didst torment through their own abominations.
²⁴ For they went far astray on the paths of error,
accepting as gods those animals which even their enemies^[w] despised;
they were deceived like foolish babes.
²⁵ Therefore, as to thoughtless children,
thou didst send thy judgment to mock them.
²⁶ But those who have not heeded the warning of light rebukes
will experience the deserved judgment of God.
²⁷ For when in their suffering they became incensed
at those creatures which they had thought to be gods, being punished by means of them,
they saw and recognized as the true God him whom they had before refused to know.
Therefore the utmost condemnation came upon them.

13 For all men who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature;
and they were unable from the good things that are seen to know him who exists,
nor did they recognize the craftsman while paying heed to his works;
² but they supposed that either fire or wind or swift air,
or the circle of the stars, or turbulent water,
or the luminaries of heaven were the gods that rule the world.
³ If through delight in the beauty of these things men^[x] assumed them to be gods,
let them know how much better than these is their Lord,
for the author of beauty created them.
⁴ And if men^[y] were amazed at their power and working,
let them perceive from them
how much more powerful is he who formed them.
⁵ For from the greatness and beauty of created things
comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.
⁶ Yet these men are little to be blamed,
for perhaps they go astray
while seeking God and desiring to find him.
⁷ For as they live among his works they keep searching,
and they trust in what they see, because the things that are seen are beautiful.
⁸ Yet again, not even they are to be excused;
⁹ for if they had the power to know so much
that they could investigate the world,
how did they fail to find sooner the Lord of these things?

¹⁰ But miserable, with their hopes set on dead things, are the men
who give the name “gods” to the works of men’s hands,
gold and silver fashioned with skill,
and likenesses of animals,
or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand.
¹¹ A skilled woodcutter may saw down a tree easy to handle
and skilfully strip off all its bark,
and then with pleasing workmanship
make a useful vessel that serves life’s needs,
¹² and burn the castoff pieces of his work
to prepare his food, and eat his fill.
¹³ But a castoff piece from among them, useful for nothing,
a stick crooked and full of knots,
he takes and carves with care in his leisure,
and shapes it with skill gained in idleness;^[z]
he forms it like the image of a man,
¹⁴ or makes it like some worthless animal,
giving it a coat of red paint and coloring its surface red
and covering every blemish in it with paint;
¹⁵ then he makes for it a niche that befits it,
and sets it in the wall, and fastens it there with iron.
¹⁶ So he takes thought for it, that it may not fall,
because he knows that it cannot help itself,
for it is only an image and has need of help.
¹⁷ When he prays about possessions and his marriage and children,
he is not ashamed to address a lifeless thing.
¹⁸ For health he appeals to a thing that is weak;
for life he prays to a thing that is dead;
for aid he entreats a thing that is utterly inexperienced;
for a prosperous journey, a thing that cannot take a step;
¹⁹ for money-making and work and success with his hands
he asks strength of a thing whose hands have no strength.

14 Again, one preparing to sail and about to voyage over raging waves
calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the ship which carries him.
² For it was desire for gain that planned that vessel,
and wisdom was the craftsman who built it;
³ but it is thy providence, O Father, that steers its course,
because thou hast given it a path in the sea,
and a safe way through the waves,
⁴ showing that thou canst save from every danger,
so that even if a man lacks skill, he may put to sea.
⁵ It is thy will that works of thy wisdom should not be without effect;
therefore men trust their lives even to the smallest piece of wood,
and passing through the billows on a raft they come safely to land.
⁶ For even in the beginning, when arrogant giants were perishing,
the hope of the world took refuge on a raft,
and guided by thy hand left to the world the seed of a new generation.
⁷ For blessed is the wood by which righteousness comes.

¹² For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication,
and the invention of them was the corruption of life,
¹³ for neither have they existed from the beginning
nor will they exist for ever.
¹⁴ For through the vanity of men they entered the world,
and therefore their speedy end has been planned.
¹⁵ For a father, consumed with grief at an untimely bereavement,
made an image of his child, who had been suddenly taken from him;
and he now honored as a god what was once a dead human being,
and handed on to his dependents secret rites and initiations.
¹⁶ Then the ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law,
and at the command of monarchs graven images were worshiped.
¹⁷ When men could not honor monarchs^[aa] in their presence, since they lived at a distance,
they imagined their appearance far away,
and made a visible image of the king whom they honored,
so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.
¹⁸ Then the ambition of the craftsman impelled
even those who did not know the king to intensify their worship.
¹⁹ For he, perhaps wishing to please his ruler,
skilfully forced the likeness to take more beautiful form,
²⁰ and the multitude, attracted by the charm of his work,
now regarded as an object of worship the one whom shortly before they had honored as a man.
²¹ And this became a hidden trap for mankind,
because men, in bondage to misfortune or to royal authority,
bestowed on objects of stone or wood the name that ought not to be shared.

15 But thou, our God, art kind and true,
patient, and ruling all things^[ad] in mercy.
² For even if we sin we are thine, knowing thy power;
but we will not sin, because we know that we are accounted thine.
³ For to know thee is complete righteousness,
and to know thy power is the root of immortality.
⁴ For neither has the evil intent of human art misled us,
nor the fruitless toil of painters,
a figure stained with varied colors,
⁵ whose appearance arouses yearning in fools,
so that they desire^[ae] the lifeless form of a dead image.
⁶ Lovers of evil things and fit for such objects of hope^[af]
are those who either make or desire or worship them.

⁷ For when a potter kneads the soft earth
and laboriously molds each vessel for our service,
he fashions out of the same clay
both the vessels that serve clean uses
and those for contrary uses, making all in like manner;
but which shall be the use of each of these
the worker in clay decides.
⁸ With misspent toil, he forms a futile god from the same clay—
this man who was made of earth a short time before
and after a little while goes to the earth from which he was taken,
when he is required to return the soul that was lent him.
⁹ But he is not concerned that he is destined to die
or that his life is brief,
but he competes with workers in gold and silver,
and imitates workers in copper;
and he counts it his glory that he molds counterfeit gods.
¹⁰ His heart is ashes, his hope is cheaper than dirt,
and his life is of less worth than clay,
¹¹ because he failed to know the one who formed him
and inspired him with an active soul
and breathed into him a living spirit.
¹² But he^[ag] considered our existence an idle game,
and life a festival held for profit,
for he says one must get money however one can, even by base means.
¹³ For this man, more than all others, knows that he sins
when he makes from earthy matter fragile vessels and graven images.

¹⁸ The enemies of thy people^[ai] worship even the most hateful animals,
which are worse than all others, when judged by their lack of intelligence;
¹⁹ and even as animals they are not so beautiful in appearance that one would desire them,
but they have escaped both the praise of God and his blessing.