Wisdom 10:15-11:10

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

¹⁵ A holy people and blameless race
wisdom^[a] 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^[b] 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^[c] as a stern king does in condemnation.