The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Solomon 11
1 Wisdom prospered their works in the
hand of a holy prophet.
2 They traveled through a desert without
inhabitant, and they pitched their tents
in trackless regions.
3 They withstood enemies and repelled
foes.
4 They thirsted, and they called upon you,
and water was given to them out of
the† flinty rock, and healing of their
thirst out of the hard stone.
5 For by what things their foes were punished,
by these they in their need were benefited.
6 When enemies were troubled with clotted blood
instead of a river’s ever-flowing fountain,
7 to rebuke the decree for the slaying of
babies, you gave them abundant water beyond all hope,
8 having shown by the thirst which they
had suffered how you punished the adversaries.
9 For when they were tried, although chastened in mercy,
they learned how the ungodly were tormented,
being judged with wrath.
10 For you tested these as a father admonishing them;
but you searched out those as a stern
king condemning them.
11 Yes and whether they were far off or
near, they were equally distressed;
12 for a double grief seized them,
and a groaning at the memory of
things past.
13 For when they heard that through their
own punishments the others benefited,
they recognized the Lord.
14 For him who long before was thrown out
and exposed they stopped mocking.
In the end of what happened, they
marveled, having thirsted in another manner
than the righteous.
15 But in return for the senseless imaginings of their
unrighteousness, wherein they were led astray to
worship irrational reptiles and wretched vermin,
you sent upon them a multitude of
irrational creatures to punish them,
16 that they might learn that by what
things a man sins, by these he is
punished.
17 For your all-powerful hand
that created the world out of formless
matter didn’t lack means to send upon them a
multitude of bears, fierce lions,
18 or newly-created and unknown
wild beasts, full of rage,
either breathing out a blast of fiery
breath, or belching out smoke,
or flashing dreadful sparks from their
eyes;
19 which had power not only to consume
them by their violence,
but to destroy them even by the terror
of their sight.
20 Yes and without these they might have
fallen by a single breath, being pursued
by Justice, and scattered abroad by the breath of your
power; but you arranged all things by measure, number, and weight.
21 For to be greatly strong is yours at all
times. Who could withstand the might of
your arm?
22 Because the whole world before youis as
a grain in a balance, and as a drop of dew that comes down
upon the earth in the morning.
23 But you have mercy on all men, because
you have power to do all things,
and you overlook the sins of men to
the end that they may repent.
24 For you love all things that are,
and abhor none of the things which
you made; For you never would have formed
anything if you hated it.
25 How would anything have endured unless you had willed it?
Or that which was not called by you,
how would it have been preserved?
26 But you spare all things, because they
are yours, O Sovereign Lord, you who love the
living.