The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Solomon 16
1 For this cause, they were deservedly punished
through creatures like those which they worship,
and tormented through a multitude of vermin.
2 Instead of this punishment, you, giving
benefits to your people, prepared quails for food,
a delicacy to satisfy the desire of their appetite,
3 to the end that your enemies, desiring
food, might for the hideousness of the
creatures sent among them, loathe even
the necessary appetite; but these, your
people, having for a short time suffered lack,
might even partake of delicacies.
4 For it was necessary thatinescapable lack
should come up on those oppressors,
but that to these it should only be
showed how their enemies were
tormented.
5 For even when terrible raging of wild
beasts came upon your people,
and they were perishing by the bites of
crooked serpents, your wrath didn’t
continue to the uttermost;
6 but for admonition were they troubled
for a short time, having a token of salvation
to put them in remembrance of the
commandment of your law;
7 for he who turned toward it was not
saved because of that which was
seen, but because of you, the Savior of all.
8 Yes, and in this you persuaded our enemies
that you are he who delivers out of
every evil.
9 For the bites of locusts and flies truly
killed them. No healing for their life was found,
because they were worthy to be punished by such things.
10 But your children weren’t overcome by
the very fangs of venomous dragons,
for your mercy passed by where they
were and healed them.
11 For they were bitten to put them in remembrance of your oracles,
and were quickly saved, lest, falling into deep forgetfulness,
they should become unable to respond to your kindness.
12 For truly it was neither herb nor poultice
that cured them, but your word, O Lord, which heals all
people.
13 For you have authority over life and
death, and you lead down to the gates of
Hades, and lead up again.
14 But though a man kills by his wickedness,
he can’t retrieve the spirit that has
departed or release the imprisoned soul.
15 But it is not possible to escape yourhand;
16 for ungodly men, refusing to know you,
were scourged in the strength of
your arm, pursued with strange rains and hails
and relentless storms, and utterly consumed with fire.
17 For, what was most marvelous,
in the water which quenches all
things, the fire burned hotter;
for the world fights for the righteous.
18 For at one time the flame was restrained,
that it might not burn up the creatures
sent against the ungodly,
but that these themselves as they
looked might see that they were
chased by the judgment of God.
19 At another time even in the midst of
water it burns more intensely than
fire, that it may destroy the produce of an
unrighteous land.
20 Instead of these things, you gave your
people angels’ food to eat,
and you provided ready-to-eat bread
for them from heaven without toil,
having the virtue of every pleasant
flavor, and agreeable to every taste.
21 For your nature showed your sweetness
toward your children, while that bread,
serving the desire of the eater, changed
itself according to every man’s choice.
22 But snow and ice endured fire, and
didn’t melt, that people might know that fire was
destroying the fruits of the enemies,
burning in the hail and flashing in the
rains;
23 and that this fire, again, in order that
righteous people may be nourished,
has even forgotten its own power.
24 For the creation, ministering to you, its
maker, strains its force against the unrighteous for punishment
and in kindness, slackens it on behalf
of those who trust in you.
25 Therefore at that time also, converting
itself into all forms, it ministered to
your all-nourishing bounty,
according to the desire of those who
had need,
26 that your children, whom you loved, O
Lord, might learn that it is not the growth of crops that
nourishes a man, but that your word preserves those
who trust you.
27 For that which was not destroyed by fire,
melted away when it was simply
warmed by a faint sunbeam,
28 that it might be known that we must rise
before the sun to give you thanks,
and must pray to you at the dawning
of the light;
29 for the hope of the unthankful will melt
as the winter’s hoar frost,
and will flow away as water that has
no use.