Wisdom of Solomon, 11

1. She prospered their works in the hand of the holy prophet.

1. Wisdom gave success to their actions through a holy prophet;

2. They went through the wilderness that was not inhabited, and pitched tents in places where there lay no way.

2. they crossed an uninhabited wilderness and pitched camp in inaccessible places.

3. They stood against their enemies, and were avenged of their adversaries.

3. They stood up to their enemies and fought off the hostile.

4. When they were thirsty, they called upon thee, and water was given them out of the flinty rock, and their thirst was quenched out of the hard stone.

4. When they were thirsty they called on you and you gave them water from hard flint, from a rocky cliff, a welcome relief for the parched.

5. For by what things their enemies were punished, by the same they in their need were benefited.

5. The same creatures you used to punish their enemies were of benefit to them in their trouble.

6. For instead of of a perpetual running river troubled with foul blood,

6. For their enemies an ever-flowing source of river water was polluted with blood -

7. For a manifest reproof of that commandment, whereby the infants were slain, thou gavest unto them abundance of water by a means which they hoped not for:

7. a stern response to the decree ordering the slaughter of infants. But, against all hope, you gave your people water in abundance,

8. Declaring by that thirst then how thou hadst punished their adversaries.

8. showing them by the thirst they suffered, how you had punished their enemies.

9. For when they were tried albeit but in mercy chastised, they knew how the ungodly were judged in wrath and tormented, thirsting in another manner than the just.

9. Their trials were no more than merciful reproofs. Through them, your people learned how severely the wicked were judged and punished.

10. For these thou didst admonish and try, as a father: but the other, as a severe king, thou didst condemn and punish.

10. You tested them as does a father, while you examined their enemies like a stern king.

11. Whether they were absent or present, they were vexed alike.

11. Their enemies suffered at the time and also later.

12. For a double grief came upon them, and a groaning for the remembrance of things past.

12. When they remembered the past, theirs was a double grief and groaning.

13. For when they heard by their own punishments the other to be benefited, they had some feeling of the Lord.

13. They came to see that it was the work of the Lord when they realized that their punishment had benefited the others.

14. For whom they respected with scorn, when he was long before thrown out at the casting forth of the infants, him in the end, when they saw what came to pass, they admired.

14. Long before, they had exposed Moses; they had rejected him in derision; but now they admired him because of what had happened, and after they had suffered a thirst far different from that of the righteous.

15. But for the foolish devices of their wickedness, wherewith being deceived they worshipped serpents void of reason, and vile beasts, thou didst send a multitude of unreasonable beasts upon them for vengeance;

15. Their wickedness and foolish ideas led them astray, even to worshiping snakes and other repugnant animals; this is why you sent them hordes of similar creatures,

16. That they might know, that wherewithal a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be punished.

16. teaching them that punishment takes the same form as the sin.

17. For thy Almighty hand, that made the world of matter without form, wanted not means to send among them a multitude of bears or fierce lions,

17. In fact, your almighty power that created the world from formless matter did not lack means to unleash upon them bears and savage lions,

18. Or unknown wild beasts, full of rage, newly created, breathing out either a fiery vapour, or filthy scents of scattered smoke, or shooting horrible sparkles out of their eyes:

18. or monsters freshly created, unknown and full of fury, breathing fire or noisily spitting smoke or flashing fearful sparks from their eyes,

19. Whereof not only the harm might dispatch them at once, but also the terrible sight utterly destroy them.

19. creatures not only capable of destroying them at a single blow but whose mere appearance could make them die of fright.

20. Yea, and without these might they have fallen down with one blast, being persecuted of vengeance, and scattered abroad through the breath of thy power: but thou hast ordered all things in measure and number and weight.

20. Even without this, they could have dropped dead at a single breath if pursued by your justice, or dispersed by the breath of your might; but you ordered all with measure, number and weight.

21. For thou canst shew thy great strength at all times when thou wilt; and who may withstand the power of thine arm?

21. You are able to show your power at any moment and who can resist the strength of your arm?

22. For the whole world before thee is as a little grain of the balance, yea, as a drop of the morning dew that falleth down upon the earth.

22. For the entire world lies before you, just enough to tip the scales, a drop of morning dew falling on the ground.

23. But thou hast mercy upon all; for thou canst do all things, and winkest at the sins of men, because they should amend.

23. But because you are almighty, you are merciful to all; you overlook sins and give your children time to repent.

24. For thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which thou hast made: for never wouldest thou have made any thing, if thou hadst hated it.

24. You love everything that exists and hate nothing that you have made; had you hated anything, you would not have formed it.

25. And how could any thing have endured, if it had not been thy will? or been preserved, if not called by thee?

25. How could anything endure if you did not will it? And how could anything last that you had not willed?

26. But thou sparest all: for they are thine, O Lord, thou lover of souls.

26. You have compassion on all because all is yours, O Lord, lover of life.