Wisdom of Solomon, 18

1. For your holy ones, however, there was a very great light. The Egyptians, who could hear them but not see them, called them fortunate because they had not suffered too;

1. But for thy holy ones there was very great light. Their enemies heard their voices but did not see their forms, and counted them happy for not having suffered,

2. they thanked them for doing no injury in return for previous wrongs and asked forgiveness for their past ill-will.

2. and were thankful that thy holy ones, though previously wronged, were doing them no injury; and they begged their pardon for having been at variance with them.

3. In contrast to the darkness, you gave your people a pillar of blazing fire to guide them on their unknown journey, a mild sun for their ambitious migration.

3. Therefore thou didst provide a flaming pillar of fire as a guide for thy people's unknown journey, and a harmless sun for their glorious wandering.

4. But well those others deserved to be deprived of light and imprisoned in darkness, for they had kept in captivity your children, by whom the incorruptible light of the Law was to be given to the world.

4. For their enemies deserved to be deprived of light and imprisoned in darkness, those who had kept thy sons imprisoned, through whom the imperishable light of the law was to be given to the world.

5. As they had resolved to kill the infants of the holy ones, and as of those exposed only one child had been saved, you punished them by carrying off their horde of children and by destroying them all in the wild water.

5. When they had resolved to kill the babes of thy holy ones, and one child had been exposed and rescued, thou didst in punishment take away a multitude of their children; and thou didst destroy them all together by a mighty flood.

6. That night had been known in advance to our ancestors, so that, well knowing him in whom they had put their trust, they would be sure of his promises.

6. That night was made known beforehand to our fathers, so that they might rejoice in sure knowledge of the oaths in which they trusted.

7. Your people thus were waiting both for the rescue of the upright and for the ruin of the enemy;

7. The deliverance of the righteous and the destruction of their enemies were expected by thy people.

8. for by the very vengeance that you exacted on our adversaries, you glorified us by calling us to you.

8. For by the same means by which thou didst punish our enemies thou didst call us to thyself and glorify us.

9. So the holy children of the good offered sacrifice in secret and with one accord enacted this holy law: that the holy ones should share good things and dangers alike; and forthwith they chanted the hymns of the ancestors.

9. For in secret the holy children of good men offered sacrifices, and with one accord agreed to the divine law, that the saints would share alike the same things, both blessings and dangers; and already they were singing the praises of the fathers.

10. In echo came the discordant cries of their enemies, and the pitiful wails of people mourning for their children could be heard from far away.

10. But the discordant cry of their enemies echoed back, and their piteous lament for their children was spread abroad.

11. One and the same punishment had struck slave and master alike, and now commoner and king had the same sufferings to endure.

11. The slave was punished with the same penalty as the master, and the common man suffered the same loss as the king;

12. Struck by the same death, all had innumerable dead. There were not enough living left to bury them, for, at one stroke, the flower of their offspring had perished.

12. and they all together, by the one form of death, had corpses too many to count. For the living were not sufficient even to bury them, since in one instant their most valued children had been destroyed.

13. Those whose spells had made them completely incredulous, when faced with the destruction of their first-born, acknowledged this people to be child of God.

13. For though they had disbelieved everything because of their magic arts, yet, when their first-born were destroyed, they acknowledged thy people to be God's son.

14. When peaceful silence lay over all, and night had run the half of her swift course,

14. For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone,

15. down from the heavens, from the royal throne, leapt your all-powerful Word like a pitiless warrior into the heart of a land doomed to destruction. Carrying your unambiguous command like a sharp sword,

15. thy all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed, a stern warrior

16. it stood, and filled the universe with death; though standing on the earth, it touched the sky.

16. carrying the sharp sword of thy authentic command, and stood and filled all things with death, and touched heaven while standing on the earth.

17. Immediately, dreams and gruesome visions overwhelmed them with terror, unexpected fears assailed them.

17. Then at once apparitions in dreadful dreams greatly troubled them, and unexpected fears assailed them;

18. Hurled down, some here, some there, half dead, they were able to say why they were dying;

18. and one here and another there, hurled down half dead, made known why they were dying;

19. for the dreams that had troubled them had warned them why beforehand, so that they should not perish without knowing why they were being afflicted.

19. for the dreams which disturbed them forewarned them of this, so that they might not perish without knowing why they suffered.

20. Experience of death, however, touched the upright too, and a great many were struck down in the desert. But the Retribution did not last long,

20. The experience of death touched also the righteous, and a plague came upon the multitude in the desert, but the wrath did not long continue.

21. for a blameless man hurried to their defence. Wielding the weapons of his sacred office, prayer and expiating incense, he confronted Retribution and put an end to the plague, thus showing that he was your servant.

21. For a blameless man was quick to act as their champion; he brought forward the shield of his ministry, prayer and propitiation by incense; he withstood the anger and put an end to the disaster, showing that he was thy servant.

22. He overcame Hostility, not by physical strength, nor by force of arms; but by word he prevailed over the Punisher, by recalling the oaths made to the Fathers, and the covenants.

22. He conquered the wrath not by strength of body, and not by force of arms, but by his word he subdued the punisher, appealing to the oaths and covenants given to our fathers.

23. Already the corpses lay piled in heaps, when he interposed and beat Retribution back and cut off its approach to the living.

23. For when the dead had already fallen on one another in heaps, he intervened and held back the wrath, and cut off its way to the living.

24. For the whole world was on his flowing robe, the glorious names of the Fathers engraved on the four rows of stones, and your Majesty on the diadem on his head.

24. For upon his long robe the whole world was depicted, and the glories of the fathers were engraved on the four rows of stones, and thy majesty on the diadem upon his head.

25. From these the Destroyer recoiled, he was afraid of these. This one experience of Retribution was enough.

25. To these the destroyer yielded, these he feared; for merely to test the wrath was enough.