Wisdom of Solomon 11

1He prospered their works by the hand of a holy prophet.

2They traveled through an uninhabited wilderness, and in trackless places they pitched tents;

3They stood against enemies and defended against foes.

4They were thirsty and called on you, and water was given to them from a sheer rock, and a remedy for thirst from hard stone.

5For by the very things through which their enemies were punished, they themselves, when in need, were benefited.

6Instead of the spring of an ever-flowing river, they were troubled by muddy blood,

7as a rebuke for the decree that killed infants,

8You gave them abundant water unexpectedly, showing through their thirst at that time how you punished their adversaries.

9For when they were tested, though being disciplined with mercy, they learned how the ungodly were tormented while being judged in wrath;

10For these you tested by admonishing them as a father, but those you examined by condemning them as a stern king.

11And both those absent and those present were afflicted alike;

12For a double grief and groaning at the memory of what had happened seized them.

13For when they heard that those very people were being benefited through their own punishments, they recognized the Lord.

14For they rejected with mockery the one who had long ago been cast out at his exposure; but at the end of those events they marveled, having thirsted unlike the righteous.

15But in return for the foolish reasonings of their unrighteousness, by which, having been led astray, they worshiped irrational creeping things and worthless beasts, you sent upon them a multitude of irrational animals for punishment,

16so that they might know that by the very things through which a person sins, by these he is punished.

17For your almighty hand, which created the world out of formless matter, was not powerless to send upon them a multitude of bears or fierce lions,

18or newly created unknown wild beasts, full of rage, or else breathing out fiery breath,

19or foul masses of smoke being winnowed, or terrible sparks flashing from their eyes—whose harm was able not only to crush them together, but even their frightening appearance to destroy them.

20And even apart from these things, they could have fallen by a single breath, pursued by justice and winnowed by the breath of your power; but you have arranged all things by measure and number and weight.

21For it is always in your power to show great strength, and who will withstand the might of your arm?

22For the whole world before you is like a speck on the scales, and like a drop of morning dew that falls upon the earth.

23But you have mercy on all, because you are able to do all things, and you overlook the sins of men for repentance.

24For you love all things that exist, and you detest none of the things you made; for if you had hated anything, you would not have fashioned it.

25For how could anything have remained, if you had not willed it? Or how could what had not been called by you have been preserved?

26But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Master who loves life. For your imperishable spirit is in all things.