Wisdom of Solomon 16:20-29
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Israelites Receive Manna
20 Instead of these things you gave your people food of angels,
and without their toil you supplied them from heaven with bread ready to eat,
providing every pleasure and suited to every taste.(A)
21 For your sustenance manifested your sweetness toward your children,
and the bread, ministering[a] to the desire of the one who took it,
was changed to suit everyone’s liking.(B)
22 Snow and ice withstood fire without melting,
so that they might know that the crops of their enemies
were being destroyed by the fire that blazed in the hail
and flashed in the showers of rain;(C)
23 whereas the fire,[b] in order that the righteous might be fed,
even forgot its native power.
24 For creation, serving you who made it,
exerts itself to punish the unrighteous
and in kindness relaxes on behalf of those who trust in you.(D)
25 Therefore at that time also, changed into all forms,
it served your all-nourishing bounty,
according to the desire of those who had need,[c](E)
26 so that your children, whom you loved, O Lord, might learn
that it is not the production of crops that feeds humankind
but that your word sustains those who trust in you.(F)
27 For what was not destroyed by fire
was melted when simply warmed by a fleeting ray of the sun,(G)
28 to make it known that one must rise before the sun to give you thanks
and must pray to you at the dawning of the light,(H)
29 for the hope of an ungrateful person will melt like wintry frost
and flow away like wastewater.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.