Wisdom 1-19

Common English Bible

Seek wisdom and justice

1 You who judge the earth, love what is right. Set your mind on the Lord in goodness. Seek him with a sincere heart.

² Those who don’t put the Lord to the test will find him. He makes himself known to those who trust him. ³ Perverse reasoning separates people from God. His power exposes the foolish people who test him.

⁴ Wisdom will avoid a deceptive soul that plans evil. Wisdom won’t make her home in a body that is devoted to sin. ⁵ A holy, instructive spirit will flee deceit and leave when ignorant people start to plot. It is ashamed to be found in the presence of wrongdoing. ⁶ Wisdom is a spirit that wants only what is best for humans.

Wisdom won’t declare blasphemers to be innocent because their own words convict them. God is witness to their thoughts. Truth examines the heart and hears what is said. ⁷ The Lord’s Spirit fills the whole world. It holds everything together and knows what everyone says. ⁸ Therefore, those who utter unjust words don’t escape notice. Justice will expose them and not pass them by. ⁹ A proper inquiry will be made into the plots of ungodly people. News of their words will reach the Lord and make their lawless deeds known. ¹⁰ God’s ear listens intently to everything anyone says. Murmurings can’t be kept secret for long. ¹¹ So guard against useless murmuring. Keep your tongue from speaking ill. Everything you say has some consequence, even if you think that you are speaking in private. A lying mouth destroys the soul.

¹² Don’t seek death through the error of your ways. Don’t invite destruction on yourself by what you do. ¹³ God didn’t make death. God takes no delight in the ruin of anything that lives. ¹⁴ God created everything so that it might exist. The creative forces at work in the cosmos are life-giving. There is no destructive poison in them. The underworld^[a] doesn’t rule on earth. ¹⁵ Doing what is right means living forever.

The deluded reasoning of unrighteous people

¹⁶ In spite of this, the ungodly called out to death by what they did and said. Thinking that death was their friend, they lost their resolve and made a treaty with death. Let them have each other: death and the ungodly belong together!

2 By reasoning in their twisted way, the ungodly said: Our lives are short and painful. There is no antidote for death; no one has come back from the grave. ² All of us came into being by chance. When our lives are over, it will be just as if we had never been. The breath in our nostrils is mere smoke. Reason is just a spark in the beating of our hearts. ³ When that spark is extinguished, the body will be turned into ashes. The spirit will evaporate into thin air. ⁴ Over time, our names will be forgotten. No one will remember our deeds. Our lives will pass away like the last wisps of a cloud. Our lives will be dispersed like a morning mist chased away by the sun and weighed down by the day’s heat. ⁵ Our time here is like a shadow passing by. There’s no turning back from death. It has been sealed, and no one will alter it.

⁶ Come then! Let’s enjoy all the good things of life now. Let’s enjoy creation to the fullest as we did in our youth. ⁷ Let’s drink our fill of expensive wines and enjoy fine perfumes. Let’s pluck every fresh blossom of spring as we pass by. ⁸ Let’s crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither. ⁹ Let’s make sure that no meadow is left untouched by our high-spirited fun. Let’s leave evidence everywhere that we made the most of this life, because this life is all we have.

¹⁰ Let’s take advantage of the day laborer who does what’s right. Let’s not be afraid to abuse the widow. Let’s show that we couldn’t care less for the gray hair of our elders. ¹¹ May strength be our only law and determine what’s right, for it’s clear to us that what is weak is worthless.

¹² Let’s lie in ambush for the one who does what is right. He’s a nuisance to us. He always opposes our actions. He blames us because we have failed to keep the Law. He condemns us for turning our backs on our upbringing. ¹³ He boasts of his knowledge of God. He even calls himself the Lord’s servant.^{[b] 14} He exposes our secret plans. Just to look at him makes us sick. ¹⁵ His life isn’t like the lives of others. His ways are completely different. ¹⁶ He thinks we’re frauds. He avoids us and our actions as though we’re unclean. Instead, he blesses the final days of those who do what’s right. He even boasts that God is his Father.

¹⁷ Let’s see if his words are true. Let’s put him to the extreme test and see what happens. ¹⁸ If this man who does the right thing is indeed God’s son, then God will assist him. God will rescue him from the hand of those who oppress him. ¹⁹ Let’s test him by assaulting and torturing him. Then we will know just how good he really is. Let’s test his ability to endure pain. ²⁰ Let’s condemn him to a disgraceful death: according to him, God should show up to protect him.

²¹ This was how the ungodly reasoned, but they were mistaken. Their malice completely blinded them. ²² They didn’t know of God’s secret plan. They didn’t hope for the reward that holiness brings. They didn’t consider the prize they would win if they kept their whole beings free from stain. ²³ God created humans to live forever. He made them as a perfect representation of his own unique identity. ²⁴ Death entered the universe only through the devil’s envy. Those who belong to the devil’s party experience death.^[c]

Reward and punishment after death

3 The souls of those who do what is right are in God’s hand. They won’t feel the pain of torment. ² To those who don’t know any better, it seems as if they have died. Their departure from this life was considered their misfortune. ³ Their leaving us seemed to be their destruction, but in reality they are at peace. ⁴ It may look to others as if they have been punished, but they have the hope of living forever. ⁵ They were disciplined a little, but they will be rewarded with abundant good things, because God tested them and found that they deserve to be with him. ⁶ He tested them like gold in the furnace; he accepted them like an entirely burned offering. ⁷ Then, when the time comes for judgment, the godly will burst forth and run about like fiery sparks among dry straw. ⁸ The godly will judge nations and hold power over peoples, even as the Lord will rule over them forever. ⁹ Those who trust in the Lord will know the truth. Those who are faithful will always be with him in love. Favor and mercy belong to the holy ones. God watches over God’s chosen ones.

¹⁰ The ungodly will get what their evil thinking deserves. They had no regard for the one who did what was right, and instead, they rose up against the Lord. ¹¹ Those who have contempt for wisdom and instruction will be miserable. People like this have no hope. Their work won’t amount to anything. Their actions will be worthless. ¹² They will marry foolish people. Their children will be wicked. Their whole family line will be cursed.

¹³ What a contrast to the barren woman who has kept herself pure, who hasn’t had sex with another in sin. She will be blessed. When God inspects entire lives, she will bear fruit. ¹⁴ Even the eunuch who doesn’t break the Law with his hands and doesn’t think evil thoughts against the Lord will receive a precious gift for his fidelity and a special place in the Lord’s temple. ¹⁵ Everyone will praise the fruit of good work. Good sense is a root that never withers.

¹⁶ The children of adulterers, however, will come to nothing. The seed of people who have sex with others in violation of the Law will dry up. ¹⁷ Even if they live to old age, their lives won’t amount to anything. In their old age they will have no honor. ¹⁸ If they die young, they will have no hope or comfort on Judgment Day. ¹⁹ The family line of those who don’t do what is right will come to a bad end.

4 It’s better to be virtuous but childless. Virtue is what will be remembered, and this means immortality. Virtue is recognized by both God and humans. ² When humans find virtue in their midst, they imitate it. When virtue is gone, they long for its return. In every age, virtue wins the contest in which the prizes are unstained. It wears the victory crown, riding in triumph in the victory parade.

³ Even though the ungodly have many children, none of them will amount to anything. Those bastard saplings will never put their roots down deep or be firmly established. ⁴ They may shoot up for a time like trees with lots of new branches, but the wind will shake them with ease, and the wind’s force will uproot the whole tree. ⁵ Even before the twigs have had a chance to bud, they will be broken off. Their fruit will be useless. It will never ripen and be fit to eat. It’ll be good for absolutely nothing. ⁶ Children born of sex outside the bounds of the Law will be called as witnesses against their parents’ illicit sex when the time for judgment comes.

⁷ In contrast, those who have done what is right will be at rest, even if they die an early death. ⁸ Those who are old aren’t honorable simply because time has passed. Old age isn’t measured by counting up a person’s years. ⁹ Wisdom and a spotless life are the marks of honorable maturity. ¹⁰ There was a man who pleased God, was loved by God, and was taken away from living in the midst of sinners. ¹¹ He was snatched away so that evil didn't pervert his understanding and so that deception didn't corrupt his soul. ¹² Envying what is worthless blinds people to what is good, and the whirlwind of desire undermines an innocent mind.

¹³ Those who do what’s right are quickly perfected and live a long life in a short span of time. ¹⁴ They are whisked away from the wickedness that surrounds them because their whole beings are pleasing to the Lord. People around them see this, but they don’t understand. It doesn’t sink in ¹⁵ that favor and mercy rest upon God’s chosen ones, and that God watches over his holy ones.

¹⁶ So the dead who did what’s right will condemn the ungodly who are still alive, and someone who dies young will condemn the old person who has lived many years but hasn’t done what is right. ¹⁷ People will see the death of the wise, but they won’t understand the Lord’s purposes for them, nor to what end the Lord kept them safe. ¹⁸ Instead, they will laugh at what they see. In the end, however, the Lord will have the last laugh on them. ¹⁹ Then they will be no better than mutilated corpses, a scandal to the rest of the dead forever. The Lord will crush them and leave them lying there speechless. He will shake them from their very foundations. They will waste away in agony. Their memory will be wiped out. ²⁰ They will cower when their sins are counted up. Their lawless deeds will witness against them and convict them.

Final judgment

5 Then the one who did do what was right will stand up with full confidence in the very midst of those who caused his suffering and made light of his distress. ² They will tremble with great fear when they see him. They will be amazed that he was delivered so unexpectedly. ³ They will sing a different tune as they gasp and say to themselves: ⁴ He’s the one we mocked?! He’s the one we insulted? What idiots we were! We thought his life was madness and his death a disgrace. ⁵ How is it that he’s now counted among God’s children? How is it that he’s now considered one of the saints?

⁶ Clearly we were the ones who missed the way to truth. The light that would have shown us the right thing to do hasn’t shone for us. That sun didn’t rise upon us. ⁷ We got entangled in lawlessness and destruction. We wandered through desolate wildernesses. We didn’t know the Lord’s way.

⁸ What good did our pride do us? What good were our wealth and pretension? ⁹ These things have all passed away like a shadow. They’re gone like old news. ¹⁰ They’re gone like a ship passing through a storm-tossed sea: once it has passed, it leaves no trace of its passing; its keel leaves no lasting mark on the waves. ¹¹ That’s all disappeared in the way a bird flies through the air and leaves no hint of its path: it beats its wings against the thin air, dives with a rush, uses its wings to circle round—yet afterward there’s no sign in the air that the bird was ever there. ¹² It’s all vanished like an arrow that’s shot at its target: the air opens up as the arrow flies through it but immediately closes up behind the arrow, and no one can detect any trace of the arrow’s path.

¹³ That’s us! We came into being, and almost immediately afterward, we died. We leave behind no evidence of virtue. We squandered what we had in bad living.

¹⁴ The ungodly person’s hope disappears like dust in the wind, like frost that is stripped away and scattered by a mighty wind, like smoke that rises and is immediately dispersed by the wind, like the memory of a stranger who spends the day and then is gone.

¹⁵ In contrast, those who do the right thing live forever. Their reward comes from the Lord. The Most High takes care of them. ¹⁶ For this reason, they will receive a lovely palace and a beautiful royal crown from the Lord himself. With his right hand he shelters them and with his right arm he protects them. ¹⁷ For his weapon, the Lord will take his zeal. He will arm creation itself for the fight against his foes. ¹⁸ He will put on justice as his body armor. He will strap on honest judgment as his helmet. ¹⁹ He will take up holiness as a shield that can never be beaten down. ²⁰ He will sharpen his fierce anger into a sword.

The cosmos itself will join with him to defeat those who have wandered from reason. ²¹ Shafts of lightning will strike with precision. They will leap from the clouds as if shot from a well-bent bow, and they will hit their target every time. ²² Showers of hail will rain down upon them as if shot from a catapult that never stops firing. The sea’s waters will rage against them, and rivers will rise up and wash over them in a fury. ²³ A powerful wind will blow against them and like a whirlwind, it will scatter them. Lawlessness will turn the whole earth into a desert. Evildoing will pull down the thrones of the powerful.

Rulers should seek wisdom and righteousness

6 So then listen, you rulers, and understand. Learn, you who judge the far reaches of the earth. ² Pay attention, you who have power over multitudes, you who take pride in having power over throngs of nations.

³ The Lord gave you authority to rule. The Most High gave you your power. He will watch carefully what you do and examine everything that you are planning. ⁴ You are merely stewards of his kingdom. If you don’t judge rightly, if you don’t keep the Law, or if you don’t act according to God’s plan, ⁵ then he’ll fall upon you very suddenly and very terribly. Judgment falls hard on those in high places. ⁶ Those who aren’t important may be pardoned out of compassion, but the powerful will be powerfully examined. ⁷ The ruler of all won’t back down from anyone. He won’t show any special consideration to someone whom others consider great. The ruler of all made both the small and the great, and he regards them all in the same way. ⁸ But a stern judgment will fall upon the ruthless.

⁹ Yes, I’m speaking to you who rule with unbridled might so that you may learn wisdom and avoid going astray. ¹⁰ Those who have treasured holy things in a holy way will themselves be made holy. Those who have been instructed in holy things will be able to offer a defense for what they have done. ¹¹ So desire my words with all your heart. Commit yourself to them, and you will be educated.

¹² Wisdom is bright and unfading. She readily appears to those who love her. She’s found by those who keep seeking after her. ¹³ She makes herself known even in advance to those who desire her with all their hearts. ¹⁴ Someone who awakens before dawn to look for her will find her already sitting at the door. ¹⁵ Taking wisdom to heart is the way to bring your thinking to maturity. The one who can’t sleep at night because he’s consumed with thinking about her will soon be free from worry.

¹⁶ She herself goes about looking for those who are worthy of her. She graciously makes herself known to them as they travel. She comes to them in each of the ideas that they think. ¹⁷ The real beginning of wisdom is to desire instruction with all your heart. ¹⁸ Love for instruction expresses itself in careful reflection. If you love Wisdom, you will keep her laws. If you are attentive to her laws, you can be assured that you will live forever. ¹⁹ If you live forever, you will be near to God. ²⁰ If you desire wisdom with all your heart, you will know what good leadership is. ²¹ So if you, who take charge over peoples, want to keep enjoying the thrones and symbols of power that you presently possess, honor wisdom so that you may rule forever.

²² I’ll tell you what Wisdom is and how she came into being. I won’t hide these secret matters from you. I’ll show you her very origins. I’ll lay all that I know of her in the open. I won’t skip past the truth. ²³ I won’t be selfish or allow jealousy to make me keep this to myself, for jealousy has nothing to do with wisdom. ²⁴ The more wise people there are in the world, the more likely it is that the world will be saved. A sensible ruler gives stability to his people. ²⁵ So it will do you good to be instructed by my words.

The ruler’s need for wisdom

7 I’m just a human like everyone else. I’m a descendant of the first person who was created out of earth. My flesh was molded into shape during the time that I was in my mother’s womb. ² Over the course of ten months, I took shape from her blood, built up out of a man’s seed and a night of pleasure. ³ When I was born, I gulped in the same air as everyone else. I dropped out onto the same earth that all people share. I let out my first cry that was just like the sound anyone else makes. ⁴ I was nurtured by snug clothes and good care. ⁵ No king has ever begun life any differently. ⁶ There’s only one way into life for everyone, and only one way out as well.

⁷ Because of this, I prayed, and the ability to reason wisely was given to me. I called out, and Wisdom’s spirit came to me. ⁸ I chose wisdom above all the symbols of royalty and over any throne. In comparison to her, I counted riches as nothing. ⁹ She was more precious to me than even a priceless jewel, since all the gold in the world would be nothing more than a little sand before her. All the silver would be just like clay in her presence. ¹⁰ I loved her more than health or beauty. I chose her above sunlight itself, for her brightness never sets.

¹¹ Yet then I found that every other good thing also came with her, for in her hands were countless riches. ¹² I rejoiced in all this because Wisdom brings them all in tow. I didn’t know that she had given birth to them. ¹³ I learned in innocence, and I don’t begrudge sharing it with you. I won’t conceal her riches. ¹⁴ She’s a never-ending treasure for humans. Those who possess her are ready to be God’s friends, commended for the gifts that come from instruction.

Wisdom’s all-embracing excellence

¹⁵ I pray that God will allow me to speak knowledgeably and to ponder well what God has taught me. God himself is the guide even of Wisdom, and God keeps those who already possess wisdom on the right course. ¹⁶ We’re in God’s hands, as are our words, all our reasoning, and all our practical knowledge. ¹⁷ He’s given me accurate knowledge of all that is—of how the world is made and holds together, and of the forces at work in the world’s essential elements. ¹⁸ He’s given me knowledge of the beginning, end, and middle of time; of the alternation of the solstices and the changes of seasons; ¹⁹ of the cycle of the year and the positions of the stars; ²⁰ of the nature of animals, the temperaments of beasts, the extraordinary powers of spirits, the thoughts of humans, the different types of plants, and the healing powers of roots. ²¹ I now know everything, visible and hidden, ²² for Wisdom, the designer of everything that is, has taught me.

Her spirit is insightful, holy, unique, diverse, refined, kinetic, pure, spotless, transparent, harmless, delighting in what is good, sharp, ²³ unstoppable, overflowing with kindness, delighting in humans, steadfast, secure, not anxious, all-powerful, and all-seeing. Her spirit can be found in every spirit that is perceptive, pure, and refined. ²⁴ Wisdom is more mobile than anything that moves. She pervades and embraces everything because she is so pure. ²⁵ Wisdom is the warm breath of God’s power. She pours forth from the all-powerful one’s pure glory. Therefore, nothing impure can enter her. ²⁶ She’s the brightness that shines forth from eternal light. She’s a mirror that flawlessly reflects God’s activity. She’s the perfect image of God’s goodness. ²⁷ She can do anything, since she’s one and undivided. She never changes, and yet she makes everything new. Generation after generation, she enters souls and shapes them into God’s friends and prophets. ²⁸ God doesn’t love anything as much as people who make their home with Wisdom. ²⁹ She’s more splendid than the sun and more wonderful than the arrangement of the stars. She’s even brighter than sunlight, ³⁰ for night follows day, but evil can never overcome Wisdom.

8 She stands strong from one end of the world to the other. She is a marvelous governor over everything in between.

Solomon’s love for wisdom

² From my youth, I loved her and sought her out. I sought to make her my bride. I burned within for her beauty. ³ She honors her dignified birth by sharing her life with God. The master of all loves her. ⁴ She knows God’s secret ways and is a partner in God’s works. ⁵ If wealth is a possession to be desired with all one’s heart, what could be wealthier than Wisdom, who has given form to everything? ⁶ If thoughtful planning accomplishes things, who could possibly be wiser than she who designed everything that is? ⁷ If anyone loves to do what is right, laboring with Wisdom will produce every virtue. She trains persons to learn moderation and practical wisdom. She teaches them what is right and how to exercise courage. Nothing is more advantageous than these when it comes to human existence. ⁸ If someone wants to gain experience, she’s the one to teach it: She knows what has been from the beginning and sees what is yet to come. She can figure out puzzles of language and resolve riddles. She knows beforehand what signs and wonders point to. She knows what will happen in time and during the seasons of the year.

⁹ For these reasons, I decided to bring her to live with me. I knew that she would be a good counselor. I knew that she would be able to offer me advice when there were concerns or suffering. ¹⁰ I knew that crowds would honor me because of her and that my elders would esteem me, even though I was just a young man. ¹¹ I knew that people would say that I had good judgment because of her. I knew that other leaders would admire me. ¹² I knew that they would wait for me to speak if I had not yet spoken, and that they would praise what I had said after I had spoken. I also knew that, if I did have more to say, they would put their hands over their mouths until I had finished speaking. ¹³ I knew that because of her, I would gain everlasting life and that I would leave behind an everlasting memorial for those who would come after me. ¹⁴ I knew that because of her, I would be able to govern nations and that the peoples of the world would obey me. ¹⁵ I knew that even terrible tyrants would fear me once they had heard me. I knew that the common people would see that I was a good king and a courageous warrior. ¹⁶ I knew that when I entered my house, she would be there, and I would be able to rest easy, for life with her is sweet. I knew that sharing my life with her would mean that I would live a pain-free life, one full of celebration and joy.

Solomon’s prayer for wisdom

¹⁷ I thought all these things to myself. I reflected on them in my heart. I thought: If immortality is to be found by becoming part of Wisdom’s family, ¹⁸ if dignified delight is to be found in being Wisdom’s friend, if unending wealth comes through the works of her hands, if practical intelligence comes through being well acquainted with her, if fame comes through conversing with her, then I will definitely make her mine. ¹⁹ I was a clever child and had been born with a dignified attitude— ²⁰ or, better said, because my soul was already dignified, it entered a spotless body.

²¹ But I knew that there was no way I could possess Wisdom unless God gave her to me (and to know this was also a mark of intelligence!). So I came before the Lord and pleaded with him. I said with all my heart:

Wisdom’s purpose in history

10 Wisdom kept watch over the world’s first-formed parent, when he alone had been created. She delivered him from his grave misstep. ² Wisdom gave him the strength to have dominion over everything.

³ When a wicked man disregarded Wisdom in his anger, he perished along with his desire to murder his brother. ⁴ Because of him, the earth was flooded. Wisdom again came to the rescue. She took a man who did what was right and steered him straight on a vessel made of cheap wood.

⁵ When the peoples of the world were thrown into confusion by the combined force of their wickedness, Wisdom found one who did what was right and kept him pure before God. She even kept him strong when he would have been swayed by compassion for his child.

⁶ When the ungodly were about to be wiped out, Wisdom saved a man who did what was right. He was able to flee from the fire that descended on the five cities. ⁷ A smoking wasteland is all that remains, witnessing to their wickedness. Plants there never produce fully formed fruit. A pillar of salt still stands there as a reminder of a faithless being. ⁸ By trying to get along without Wisdom, they didn’t recognize what was good. In doing so, they left a lasting memorial of their foolishness for everyone to see. They were unable to hide the things that led to their downfall.

⁹ But Wisdom rescues her servants from their trials. ¹⁰ When a man, who did what was right, fled from his brother’s anger, Wisdom led him on straight paths. She showed him God’s kingdom and gave him knowledge of holy things. She caused him to prosper through his handiworks and increased the fruit of his labors. ¹¹ When some, because of greed, sought to get the upper hand over him, she stood by him and made him even richer. ¹² She protected him from his enemies and kept him safe from those who set an ambush for him. She intervened on his behalf in a difficult contest so that he might know that godliness is more powerful than anything.

¹³ When a man who did what was right was sold into slavery, she didn’t abandon him. She rescued him from sin. ¹⁴ She even went down into the pit with him. She didn’t forsake him when he was in chains. In the end, she obtained for him the symbol of kingly rule and authority over those who would have ruled over him. She showed that those who had accused him were liars. She gave him eternal glory.

¹⁵ Wisdom rescued a holy people and a pure generation from the grip of people who were crushing them. ¹⁶ She entered the soul of a man who served the Lord. She enabled him to oppose terrifying kings by means of signs and wonders. ¹⁷ She rewarded the holy ones for their labors and led them along a wonderful route. She became a shelter for them by day and a flaming shower of stars by night. ¹⁸ She carried them across the Red Sea^[d] and led them through deep waters. ¹⁹ She drowned their enemies and caused the depths to boil up over them. ²⁰ The people who did what was right then stripped the ungodly of their weapons. All together they sang hymns to your holy name, Lord. They praised your hand, which had defended and fought for them. ²¹ Wisdom opens the mouths of those who can’t speak and puts clear words on the tongues of infants.

The Nile and water from the rock

11 She caused their works to prosper by the hand of the holy prophet. ² They wandered through a desert in which no one lived. They set up their tents in the midst of desolate surroundings. ³ They opposed those who fought against them and defended themselves from their enemies. ⁴ They thirsted and cried out to you. You gave them water from a sharp rock, and their thirst was quenched by liquid from that hard stone. ⁵ When your people were in need, they were blessed with the very things that you used to punish their enemies. ⁶ So instead of a source of fresh water, your enemies found their own flowing river to be polluted with blood and gore. It was a judgment on those who killed their own children. ⁷ But you gave your people water in greater abundance than they could possibly imagine. ⁸ You showed your people through their own experience of thirst how you punished their opponents.

⁹ When your people were put to the test, you disciplined them, but you also showed mercy. But they learned from this how harshly the ungodly were tormented when you judged them. ¹⁰ You disciplined your people in the same way that parents warn their children, but you examined and passed sentence on the ungodly like a strict ruler. ¹¹ Whether they were distant or close by, you still afflicted them. ¹² They groaned on account of their punishment and on account of the memory of the things that they had done. ¹³ When they heard that the Hebrews were benefiting from their punishment, they perceived that it was the Lord’s doing. ¹⁴ They thirsted, but their thirst was so different from the thirst of those who do what is right! In the end, they stood in awe of the man they had mockingly rejected long ago because he had been set adrift and exposed.

Small animals and quail

¹⁵ Because their foolish and wicked thoughts had led them astray to worship unthinking reptiles and worthless animals, you sent hordes of mindless creatures upon them as a punishment. ¹⁶ In this way they learned that people are punished by the very same things by which they sin. ¹⁷ Your all-powerful hand, which had brought the world into being out of formless matter, would have been more than able to send a host of bears and fierce lions against them. ¹⁸ Or they could have been met by newly created beasts that no one had ever seen before, full of rage, breathing fire, belching smoke, and shooting deadly sparks from their eyes. ¹⁹ The damage that these beasts would have been able to do would have been more than enough to wipe out your enemies. Just the sight of them would have been enough to make them die from fear! ²⁰ Or without any of these, your enemies could have been cut down by a single breath—pursued by your justice and crushed by a powerful breath.

Digressions on divine justice

But you have set all things in right order by proportion: by measure, by number, and by weight. ²¹ You are indeed able at any time to carry out mighty deeds. Who could possibly withstand the strength of your arm? ²² Before you, the whole world is nothing but dust on the scale or but a drop of dew that falls to earth in the night. ²³ Yet precisely because you can do all things, you show mercy to everyone. You overlook their sins, giving them a chance to change their hearts and minds. ²⁴ You love everything that exists. You despise nothing that you have made. If you hated it, you wouldn’t have created it. ²⁵ Nothing could survive unless you had willed it. Nothing could remain unless you continued to call it into being. ²⁶ You spare all things because all things are yours, ruler and lover of life.

12 Your imperishable spirit is present in all things. ² Therefore, Lord, little by little you correct those who have gone astray. You warn them by reminding them of how they have sinned, so that they can be set free from their wickedness and believe in you. ³ You hated the people who once lived in your holy land because of the evil deeds they were doing. ⁴ They were casting spells and using drugs, and performed unholy rites. ⁵ They murdered their own children without pity! Those who were initiated into their secret rituals feasted on human flesh and blood. ⁶ You were determined to use our ancestors to destroy parents who kill helpless beings. ⁷ You did this so that the land you honored above all others might be settled in a way that God’s children deserved.

⁸ But you spared even these men and women when you sent wasps at the head of your army to destroy your enemies little by little. ⁹ It’s not that you weren’t able to hand the ungodly over to the righteous or because you weren’t able to wipe out the ungodly from the face of the earth all at once by fierce beasts or with a powerful word. ¹⁰ You were judging them little by little to give them an opportunity to change their hearts and minds. You did so even though you knew full well that they were wicked from their birth, that their natural inclination was to evil, and that they would never change their minds. ¹¹ Their genetic character^[e] was cursed from the start. You didn’t grant them immunity for their sins out of concern for anyone’s opinion.

¹² After all, who will question what you have done? Who will oppose your decision? Who will accuse you of destroying peoples that you yourself created? Who will come and stand before you as the champion of those who have done wrong? ¹³ There’s no god, other than you, caring for everyone. There’s no one to whom you must prove that your judgments are right. ¹⁴ There’s no king or ruler who’s able to challenge you concerning those whom you punished. ¹⁵ You always do what’s right. You’ve always governed all things correctly. You’d consider it a crime against yourself to destroy someone who didn’t deserve to be cut down. ¹⁶ Your strength is the very origin of doing the right thing. Because you rule over all, you spare all. ¹⁷ You show your strength to those who doubt how powerful you really are. You condemn the pride of those who should know better than to doubt you.

¹⁸ Still, though you rule absolutely, you exercise careful judgment. You govern us with amazing restraint. If you wanted to, you could do anything you wished. ¹⁹ By your actions, you taught your people that those who do what is right must always want what is best for others. Your sons and daughters saw that you give to those who have sinned a chance to change their hearts and minds. In this way you encouraged them. ²⁰ They knew if you gave their enemies the opportunity to free themselves from evil, punishing them with such care, and even letting them go free when they clearly deserved death, ²¹ how much more care would you exercise in judging your children, to whose fathers you had given such rich promises by means of solemn pledges and covenants? ²² While you are disciplining us, you scourge our enemies ten thousand times as much, in order that we may keep your goodness in mind when we ourselves are passing judgment. And you teach us that when we ourselves are judged, we should expect your mercy.

²³ It was for this reason that you tortured those who lived foolish and unjust lives through their own disgusting offenses. ²⁴ They wandered far even from the normal ways in which people err! They took horrible things to be gods, the worst forms of animal life. They were deceived like foolish children. ²⁵ So you sent your judgment upon them to mock them, treating them as if they were in fact mindless children. ²⁶ The ones who weren’t brought back to their senses by this mocking judgment would experience the just judgment of God. ²⁷ They were plagued by the very things they once took to be gods, and came to hate them.

In the end, they recognized that you, whom they had so long denied to be God, were in fact God. It was then that the full weight of judgment fell upon them.

13 All humans who don’t know God are empty-headed by nature. In spite of the good things that can be seen, they were somehow unable to know the one who truly is. Though they were fascinated by what he had made, they were unable to recognize the maker of everything. ² Instead, they thought that all these things—fire or wind or quickly moving air or a constellation of stars or rippling water or the sky’s bright lights that govern the world—were all gods.

³ They should have known that all these things—which they took to be gods and delighted in—were much less beautiful than the one who rules them all. The creator of beauty itself created them. ⁴ Those who fear the power and might of created things should know how much more powerful than these things is the one who fashioned them. ⁵ These people could have perceived something of the one who created all things as they thought about the power and beauty of the things that were created. ⁶ It is for this reason that they’re not without guilt.

Yet perhaps we shouldn’t blame them too much. They may have gone astray while they were looking for God, wanting to find him. ⁷ They spend a lot of time exploring his works. Something about their appearance leads them to wonder, for the things that they see are indeed wonderful. ⁸ Even so, these persons aren’t excused. ⁹ After all, if they were indeed able to know so much that they could speculate about space and time, how is it that they weren’t able to discover the ruler of space and time more quickly?

¹⁰ How much more miserable, though, are those people who put their trust in things that are dead? These people call gods the works of human hands, objects of gold and silver that artisans practice on, artistic representations of animals, even worthless stones carved by someone long ago.

¹¹ Imagine this. A woodcutter with some skill cuts down a pliable shrub. He carefully strips the outside covering of the plant and then, because he has some skill, shapes it into a tool for daily use. ¹² Afterward he picks up the leftover bark that he had stripped away and uses it to cook a meal for himself. He eats his fill and ¹³ then picks up one of the leftover pieces of wood, one that wasn’t good for anything, a crooked hard piece with broken ends where the branches had been. Having nothing else to do, he takes this piece of wood and starts carving. By a process of trial and error, he’s finally able to give it a human shape, ¹⁴ or he fashions it into something that vaguely resembles some miserable creature. He covers it with red paint, giving it a rosy hue where the creature’s flesh is supposed to be. He covers over every flaw in the wood. ¹⁵ Finally, he makes a perfect little shrine for it and fastens the shrine securely to the wall with a nail ¹⁶ so that it doesn’t fall down. He knows full well that it can’t do anything for itself. After all, it’s only an image, and it requires help.

¹⁷ In time he begins to pray to it: for his possessions, for his marriage, for his children. He’s not ashamed to talk to this lifeless object. In fact, he begins to ask this fragile little creation to provide him with good health. ¹⁸ He begins to pray for his life to this lifeless object. He cries out for help to this thing that has no experience at all. He prays about a journey to a thing that can’t even take a single step. ¹⁹ He asks it for wealth, for profit in his work, and for success in all he sets his hands to do—all this from something whose hands are powerless to do anything.

14 Or imagine this: A man is preparing for a trip. He’s about to board a ship that must sail through rough waves. So the man cries out for protection to a little piece of wood that is even more flimsy than the boat that will carry him. ² Desire for profit led to the ship’s planning, and wisdom was the artisan who built it, ³ but your watchful guidance, Father, pilots the ship. You made a way in the sea, a sure path through strong waves. ⁴ You have shown us that you can rescue us from anything, so that even those who have no skill can put out to sea. ⁵ Your will is that the works of your wisdom be fruitful. This is the only reason in the end why humans can entrust their lives to cheap pieces of wood and can reach land safely by riding the breaking surf on a ship that is no more than a raft. ⁶ Near the beginning, at a time when proud giants were being destroyed, the hope of the world escaped on just such a raft. This was how the genetic character^[f] of a new generation survived for the world to come. They were steered the whole way by your hand. ⁷ Praised be the wood by means of which it has now become possible for us to do what is right!

⁸ But idols made by human hands are cursed, as are those who make them. Those who make them are cursed because they make them. The idols are cursed because, though made of corruptible material, people call them gods. ⁹ Both are equally hateful to God: the godless craftsmen and the products of their godlessness. ¹⁰ The thing that has been produced will be punished along with the one who produced it. ¹¹ Therefore, God will come in judgment on the nation’s idols, for they have turned a part of God’s creation into something that God hates. They have produced stumbling blocks for the well-being of humans, a trap set to spring when the feet of the foolish step on it. ¹² The very notion of idols was the beginning of immoral sexual activity. The invention of idols ruined human life. ¹³ In the beginning, idols didn’t exist, and they won’t last forever. ¹⁴ They came into the world through the empty-headed imaginings of humans. Therefore, they’ll come to a quick end.

¹⁵ Imagine a father overcome with grief at the untimely death of his child. In his grief, he makes an image of the child. The person who was once a corpse he now honors as a god. He passes it on to those under his authority, along with certain mysteries and special ceremonies. ¹⁶ As time goes by, his godless custom becomes tradition. Eventually, his custom becomes law, and rulers order the people to worship these carved images.

¹⁷ These rulers, moreover, lived far away from most of their subjects. So because the people couldn’t pay their respects in person, they imagined what the ruler looked like and made an image of their honored leader. By their diligent efforts, they were thus still able to shower the king with their flattery. ¹⁸ But the artist’s desire to be recognized for his work also incited the fools to an ever greater intensity of worship. ¹⁹ Perhaps out of a desire to please the person in power, the artist makes the most of his artistic skill to fashion an even more beautiful and perfect image. ²⁰ The masses, charmed by the object’s workmanship, now begin to consider the object worthy of their worship, where not long before they had only honored the person as a human being.

²¹ In this way idolatry becomes a trap for one’s life. Whether it is because of a father’s misfortune or because people are ordered to do so, stones and plants begin to be called by the name that was never supposed to be shared with anything or anyone else.

²² Then, as if it weren’t enough that they should err concerning the knowledge of God, other things follow. When living ignorantly in the midst of great war, people call such evil things peace. ²³ Then, in the celebration of secret religious ceremonies involving the ritual murder of children or in hidden mysteries or in the mad orgies of strange worship practices, ²⁴ people stop keeping their lives and their marriages pure. Instead, one person plots to kill another by lying in ambush. Another person causes grief by becoming sexually involved with another person’s spouse. ²⁵ Everything becomes a confused mix of blood, murder, theft, and deception. Corruption, breaking one’s word, upheaval, false pledges—all these things abound. ²⁶ What is good is shouted down. Favors are forgotten. Entire beings are stained with guilt. Legitimate genealogy is lost. Marriage is thrown into confusion. Adultery and promiscuity abound.

²⁷ The worship of nameless idols is the origin of all evil—its cause as well as its result. ²⁸ People begin to party so wildly that they all go mad. They prophesy lies. They live in such a way that everything they do is wrong. They bear false witness, ²⁹ but because they have entrusted themselves into the hands of lifeless idols, they don’t expect any harm to come from swearing false pledges. ³⁰ A double judgment will hunt them down—first, because they acted wickedly toward God when they gave their attention to idols; and second, because they made solemn pledges falsely out of contempt for what was holy. ³¹ It isn’t the power of the things by which they made these solemn pledges but justice that will pursue them until it punishes them for doing wrong.

15 But you, our God, are good and true. You are very patient. You govern everything in your mercy. ² Even if we sin, we will still belong to you because we know your power. But we won’t sin, since you consider us as your own. ³ Perfection of life is to know you. To recognize your power is the root from which everlasting life grows. ⁴ The misguided art of humans didn’t deceive us, nor did the fruitless labor of clever painters even when they created an image that was dazzling in its combination of colors.

⁵ The sight of idols, however, creates desire in fools. They begin to long for a dead statue’s lifeless image. ⁶ Those who make them, those who want them, and those who worship them are all lovers of wicked things. They all deserve to have their hopes misdirected in this way.

⁷ The potters take great pains to mold the clay. They make each piece for our use. They make some containers to be used for holy purposes. Others will be used for ordinary purposes. Both pieces are made from the same clay, and both are made in the same way. But the use to which each is put is left up to the judgment of the potter. ⁸ The potters takes great care—but it is an evil care!—to design a useless god from the very same clay that only a moment before had come from the same earth from which the potters themselves also had been taken. It is the same earth to which the potters will one day return when their entire being’s debt has to be paid back. ⁹ Yet the potters don’t worry that they are going to come down with some terrible disease or even that they will have only a short life. Rather, they spend all their time competing with the goldsmiths and the silversmiths, imitating the bronzeworkers, and thinking it’s the greatest honor imaginable that they spend their lives making counterfeit gods.

¹⁰ Their hearts are nothing but rust. Their hopes are more useless than dirt. Their lives are worth less than the clay they mold. ¹¹ Why? Because the potters don’t know who made them. They don’t know who breathed life into them and made them move, who put a spirit in them to become a living being. ¹² They think that life is just a game. They think that our day-to-day existence is just a profit-seeking carnival. As they say: “You must earn a living however you can, even if it means doing the wrong thing.” ¹³ These people know better than anyone else that they are sinning when they give shape to equipment and images that are easily broken, because they are both fashioned from the same earthy material.

¹⁴ But the people who are most foolish of all, and even more to be pitied than the soul of a little child, are the enemies who oppressed your people. ¹⁵ These enemies considered the nation’s idols to be gods, even though these idols have no eyes for seeing, no nostrils for breathing air, no ears for hearing, no fingers for touching, and no feet for walking. ¹⁶ A mere human made them. A person who has been given his spirit on loan crafted them. But no human is ever able to fashion a god who is anything like God. ¹⁷ Being a human, a person can construct only a dead thing with lawless hands. These people are better than the things that they worship, for they have life and the things that they worship do not.

¹⁸ On top of it all, the enemies of your people worship the most hateful animals, things that are less intelligent than any other creatures. ¹⁹ Even as animals, there’s nothing appealing or beautiful about them. They have neither the praise nor the blessing of God.

Small animals and quail resumed

16 Therefore, the enemies of your people deserved to be punished and tormented by swarms of the very same monsters. ² In contrast to their punishment, you blessed your people when they were famished. You prepared for them a tasty delicacy—a feast of quail! ³ You did so in order that the enemies of your people, who were also hungry, wouldn’t be able to stomach food because of the ugliness of those creatures that you had sent against them. You also did so in order that your people, who were in need only for a little while, might share in a novel meal. ⁴ The enemies of your people, who oppressed them like tyrants, were fated to experience a famine that never seemed to end. But all that was necessary for your people was to show them how their enemies were to be tortured.

Insects and the bronze serpent

⁵ Even when the terrible fury of beasts overwhelmed your people and they were perishing from the stings of coiled serpents, your anger didn’t last long. ⁶ They were terrified only for a little while as a warning, since they had the sign of their salvation as a reminder of the command of your Law. ⁷ Those who turned to that sign were saved not by what they saw but by you, the savior of all. ⁸ In this way, you persuaded our enemies that you are the only one who rescues people from every evil. ⁹ Our enemies died when they were bitten by locusts and flies. There was no healing that was able to keep them alive. They deserved to be punished by those insects. ¹⁰ Yet not even the fangs of poisonous snakes were able to overcome your children, because your mercy traveled along with them and healed them. ¹¹ You did sting them in order to remind them of the things that you had told them. But you came to their rescue quickly so that they might not fall into a deep forgetfulness of your goodwill toward them. ¹² It wasn’t any herb or ointment that healed them but your word alone, Lord, which heals everything. ¹³ You have power over life and death. You lead people down to the gates of hell, and you bring them back up again. ¹⁴ Humans can indeed kill by their evil, but they can’t bring back the life that has expired or restore the spirit that has been taken away.

Storms and bread

¹⁵ It is impossible to escape from your hand. ¹⁶ Even though the ungodly denied any knowledge of you, it was your strong arm that afflicted them. They were pursued by strange rainfalls that never stopped, and by hailstorms and downpours. They were pursued by a fire that consumed everything. ¹⁷ The most unusual thing about this fire was that it showed that it was stronger than water, which normally quenches any fire. Yet the universe itself comes to the defense of those who do what is right. ¹⁸ At one point the flame did die down, so that it might not destroy the creatures that had been sent but only punish them. The ungodly noticed and realized it was God’s judgment that was hunting them down. ¹⁹ Then suddenly the fire flared up again, right in the midst of water, with an even greater intensity than normal fire. It destroyed the crops in a land dominated by wrongdoing.

²⁰ In contrast, you fed your people with the food from angels. Again and again, you provided your people with a bread that had been prepared in heaven. It was a bread that was able to satisfy anyone’s longing and please anyone’s taste. ²¹ You even showed your children your sweet side: when they ate, the bread was changed into whatever they wanted it to become! ²² And though it was like snow and snowflakes, it endured the fire, which didn’t melt it. In this way, they knew that their enemies’ crops had been destroyed by an unusual fire, one that blazed even in the midst of the hail and let off sparks even in the midst of the rain. ²³ But in order that those who do the right thing might be fed, fire itself forgot how powerful it was. ²⁴ Creation, which serves you, the one who made it, tenses itself in preparation for the judgment of those who have done wrong and then relaxes itself again in order to benefit those who have put their trust in you.

²⁵ And so it was that what was created was changed. It became a minister of your gift, completely nourishing and fulfilling the desire of those in need. ²⁶ In this way your children, whom you love, Lord, would learn that it isn’t the various kinds of crops that sustain humans, but it is your word that preserves those who trust in you. ²⁷ As proof, what wasn’t destroyed by the fire simply melted away when it was warmed by a gentle sunbeam. ²⁸ In this way we learn that we too must arise before the sun to thank you and pray to you with the dawn of light. ²⁹ The hope of those who don’t thank God, however, will melt away like winter frost and drain away like wastewater.

Darkness and fire

17 Your judgments are great and difficult to explain. This is why those who haven’t been well-taught go astray. ² When lawless people tried to oppress your holy nation, in actual fact they were the prisoners who were being held in a dark place, bound in chains through a long night. They were confined to their own homes as they vainly tried to flee from a plan that had been prepared for all eternity. ³ They thought that they could hide their sins by pulling a blanket of forgetfulness over themselves. But instead they were scattered in every direction, terrified by fear, and spooked by nightmarish visions.

⁴ They hid themselves in the deepest corners of their houses, but couldn’t escape from their fears. Even there they heard all around them sounds that terrified them. Mournful ghosts with gloomy faces appeared to them. ⁵ No fire gave them any light, nor did the stars’ light shine brightly enough to illumine that horrible night. ⁶ Only once did anything shine through: it was a frightening fire that seemed to have a life of its own. But then, when they lost sight of that light, they were even more afraid than they had been before they had seen it! They began to realize that what they had seen was even worse than what they had thought. ⁷ They realized that their mocking attempts at magic were too weak and that they had no real power. It became clear to them that they had given themselves far too much credit for understanding what was happening. ⁸ Those who had thought they could dispel fears and free sick beings from terror became sick themselves with a laughable case of nerves. ⁹ Even when there was nothing around to frighten them, they were scared by the simple sounds of animals’ movements and hissing serpents. ¹⁰ Trembling, they were dying with fright, shutting their eyes even against the empty air, as if they could thus avoid what was scaring them. ¹¹ Wickedness is cowardly, condemned by its own witness. Distressed by conscience, the wicked person thinks everything is worse than it is. ¹² Fear betrays our ability to help ourselves by thinking clearly. ¹³ Expecting the worst, people prefer to remain ignorant of the cause of their torment.

¹⁴ The night itself was powerless, rising up from the darkest corners of a hell that didn’t really exist. As they slept the same sleep, ¹⁵ monsters from their own imaginations rose up and hunted them down. They were paralyzed with fear as their spirits failed them. A sudden and unexpected fear drenched their whole being. ¹⁶ All who fell into that kind of place became like prisoners, locked up in cells without metal bars. ¹⁷ Whether they were farmers or shepherds or laborers toiling alone in the desert, the same fate overtook them all, and they were all bound in the darkness as by a single chain.

¹⁸ Whether it was the whispering of the wind, or the sound of birds singing in the thick branches of trees, or the rhythm of rushing water, ¹⁹ or the crashing down of rocks from a high cliff, or the unseen scurrying of little animals, or the howling of the most frightening of beasts, or an echo from the valleys between the hills; whatever it was, it frightened them so much that they were completely paralyzed. ²⁰ So while bright sunlight lit up the rest of the world, and people and things went about their ordered, active lives, ²¹ an oppressive night lay all around them, and around them alone. It was a sign of the darkness that was going to receive them, but they were a heavier burden to themselves than even the darkness itself.

18 In contrast, an incredible light shone all around your holy ones. Their enemies heard their voices, but couldn’t see their physical forms. They considered your holy ones fortunate, since they weren’t suffering as their enemies were. ² They were grateful that your holy ones didn’t take advantage of them, even when they could have and even after they had been treated so badly. They asked forgiveness of your people for having been at odds.

³ You provided your people with a fiery pillar to lead them on their way on the unknown journey. That pillar was like a sun, and yet that sun didn’t hurt them during their long journey to a foreign land. ⁴ The others deserved to be robbed of light and to be locked up in darkness. After all, they had kept your children locked up, even though it was through them that the never-ending light of the Law was to be given to the world.

Deliverance of the Israelites

⁵ So you swept away in judgment a huge number of the children of those who had sought to kill off your holy ones’ children (though one child, who was exposed to die, was saved!). You destroyed the rest by overwhelming them with water.

⁶ You had already alerted our fathers to that night well in advance. You did so in order that our fathers might rejoice and put their whole trust in the promises they had been given. ⁷ Your people fully expected that those who always do what is right would be delivered, while their enemies would be destroyed. ⁸ In the same way that you punished those who opposed your people, in just this way you called your people out of that land and gave them great honor. ⁹ Your holy children offered secret sacrifice of the very best that they had. They were all of one mind as they carried out the Law, which had come from God, that the holy people were to share good things as well as experience dangers together, while already singing the praises of their ancestors.

¹⁰ In contrast, the loud moaning of their enemies was a jarring and miserable sound. It rose up and could be heard everywhere as they mourned their dead children. ¹¹ The same judgment fell on both slave and ruler. Both were punished together. The lowest person and the king suffered the same thing. ¹² Countless bodies lay around, united together by a common name: death. There weren’t even enough of the living left to bury the dead! In one fleeting moment, their most valued children were destroyed. ¹³ Because of their misguided casting of spells and drug use, they didn’t believe until it was too late.

As a result, all their oldest males were destroyed. It was only then that they acknowledged your people to be your children. ¹⁴ It was then, while everything was wrapped in a gentle silence, and half a night had already passed, ¹⁵ that your all-powerful word had leaped down from heaven, the royal throne. Like a fierce warrior, he had entered the land that was marked for destruction. ¹⁶ He carried with him your unchanging declaration like a sharp sword. He stood up and filled everything with death; he reached the sky while still standing on the ground. ¹⁷ Immediately the visions of their nightmares shook them. Unexpected fears assaulted them. ¹⁸ One here, then another there, fell to the ground half-dead. They shouted out to tell those around them why they were dying. ¹⁹ The dreams that had so bothered them had foretold that this was to happen. And so they perished knowing full well why they were suffering.

²⁰ Those who did what is right were also touched by a test of death when many fell in the desert. But that wrath didn’t last long, ²¹ because a man in whom no blame could be found was already running to join the fight. He took up prayer and the reconciling incense as his weapons. He stood strong against the fury. In doing so, he limited the damage that was done. He showed that he was your servant. ²² He overcame divine anger not by bodily strength or by the power of weapons. He subdued the punisher by the word. He reminded him of the solemn pledges that had been made to our ancestors and of the covenants that had been given to them. ²³ The dead already lay fallen one upon another in heaps when he stood between the punisher and the people and stopped the assault. He cut off the punisher’s access to the living. ²⁴ On his long robe could be seen the whole of the universe. On the four rows of carved stones were the glories of the patriarchs. On the royal crown upon his head was your majesty. ²⁵ The destroyer yielded to all these, because he feared them.

Death and salvation at the Reed Sea

This one experience of wrath was sufficient for them, 19 ¹ but anger without mercy assaulted the ungodly right up to the very end. God knew before they did what was yet to come: how, ² after agreeing to send your people away, and in fact sending them away in haste, their enemies would change their minds and pursue them. ³ And so, even as they still held in their arms those whom they mourned and even as they still raised up their laments at the graves of their dead, another thoughtless plan occurred to them. They decided to pursue those who had fled even after they had agreed to their request to send them away. ⁴ A fate they fully deserved drew them to this inevitable decision and made them forget about all the things that had so recently happened to them. All this took place so that they might complete the one punishment lacking in their sufferings.

⁵ So at the same time as your people began an incredible journey, their enemies found a strange death. ⁶ The whole creation began to take on a new shape in its very nature. It once again submitted to your commands so that your children might be kept unharmed. ⁷ A cloud appeared, casting its shadow over their camp. Dry land appeared where before there had been only water. It presented them an open path through the Red Sea,^[g] a grassy plain where before there had been only violent surf. ⁸ Those who were protected by your hand passed through as a single nation, seeing amazing wonders. ⁹ They were like horses ranging about and like lambs skipping along. They praised you, Lord, for you were rescuing them. ¹⁰ They remembered all that had happened in the foreign land in which they had lived so long. They remembered how the ground had brought forth insects instead of livestock. They remembered how the river had vomited up frogs instead of its normal wildlife. ¹¹ Later, driven by hunger, they requested meat and found a new breed of bird. ¹² Quail arose from the sea to nourish them.

¹³ In contrast, punishments rained down upon the sinners, but not before they were given a clear warning through violent thunder. It was right for them to suffer for their evil deeds and for their hatred of the immigrants in their midst. ¹⁴ Some people have failed to welcome strangers who came into their midst to stay awhile. But these people went so far as to make slaves of people who were their guests and benefactors. ¹⁵ Judgment will come on those who greeted people who weren’t like them as enemies. ¹⁶ But these people first gave feasts to welcome those who did right and shared with them the blessings of the land. But then they began to force the strangers to do hard labor. ¹⁷ Therefore, they were struck blind, just like those people who had gathered at the door of one who had also done what was right. A veil of darkness was cast around them, and each one of them groped for the entrance to his own gates.

¹⁸ If we are careful to observe events, we can see just how the elements of the universe are transformed. It’s the same transformation that happens when someone changes the sounds that a harp makes by changing the key while continuing to play the same melody. ¹⁹ In this way, land animals were changed into underwater creatures, while animals that swam in the waters now moved onto the land. ²⁰ Fire was able to burn on the open water, while water forgot that it was supposed to put fire out. ²¹ Flames no longer burned the exposed flesh of living beings, who were able to walk through the flames. Flames didn’t even melt the frostlike crystals that were a kind of food of everlasting life.

God is faithful

²² In every way, Lord, you have made your people great and given them great honor. You never neglected them, but you stood by them in every time and place.