Wisdom 11:1-14

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

11 Wisdom^[a] 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^[b] 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^[c] 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.