Wisdom of Solomon 11 — LXXSA
11Verse 1She prospered their works in the hand of the holy prophet.Verse 2They went through the wilderness that was not inhabited, and pitched tents in places where there lay no way.Verse 3They stood against their enemies, and were avenged of their adversaries.Verse 4When they were thirsty, they called upon you, and water was given them out of the flinty rock, and their thirst was quenched out of the hard stone.Verse 5For by what things their enemies were punished, by the same they in their need were benefited.Verse 6For instead of a fountain of a perpetual running river troubled with foul blood,Verse 7For a manifest reproof of that commandment, whereby the infants were slain, you gave to them abundance of water by a means which they hoped not for:Verse 8Declaring by that thirst then how you had punished their adversaries.Verse 9For 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.Verse 10For these you did admonish and try, as a father: but the other, as a severe king, you did condemn and punish.Verse 11Whether they were absent or present, they were vexed alike.Verse 12For a double grief came upon them, and a groaning for the remembrance of things past.Verse 13For when they heard by their own punishments the other to be benefited, they had some feeling of the Lord.Verse 14For 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.Verse 15But for the foolish devices of their wickedness, wherewith being deceived they worshipped serpents void of reason, and vile beasts, you did send a multitude of unreasonable beasts upon them for vengeance;Verse 16That they might know, that wherewithal a man sins, by the same also shall he be punished.Verse 17For your Almighty hand, that made the world of matter without form, wanted not means to send among them a multitude of bears or fierce lions,Verse 18Or unknown wild beasts, full of rage, newly created, breathing out either a fiery vapor, or filthy scents of scattered smoke, or shooting horrible sparkles out of their eyes:Verse 19Whereof not only the harm might dispatch them at once, but also the terrible sight utterly destroy them.Verse 20Yes, and without these might they have fallen down with one blast, being persecuted of vengeance, and scattered abroad through the breath of your power: but you have ordered all things in measure and number and weight.Verse 21For you can show your great strength at all times when you will; and who may withstand the power of your arm?Verse 22For the whole world before you is as a little grain of the balance, yes, as a drop of the morning dew that falls down upon the earth.Verse 23But you have mercy upon all; for you can do all things, and wink at the sins of men, because they should amend.Verse 24For you love all the things that are, and abhor nothing which you have made: for never would you have made any thing, if you had hated it.Verse 25And how could any thing have endured, if it had not been your will? or been preserved, if not called by you?Verse 26But you spare all: for they are your, O Lord, you lover of souls.