Wisdom of Solomon 12

For your spirit, which cannot decay or be destroyed, is in all things.

1For thine incorruptible Spirit is in all things.

NoteThe chapter opens in the middle of a thought. The "For" continues the end of chapter 11, where God is said to spare everything because everything is his. "Incorruptible" means not subject to decay or death.

2That is why you correct those who do wrong a little at a time. You warn them by reminding them of the very things they have done wrong, so that they may leave their wickedness and believe in you, Lord.

2Therefore chastenest thou them by little and little that offend, and warnest them by putting them in remembrance wherein they have offended, that leaving their wickedness they may believe on thee, O Lord.

3It was your will to destroy, by the hands of our fathers, the people who lived long ago in your holy land.

3For it was thy will to destroy by the hands of our fathers both those old inhabitants of thy holy land,

Note"Our fathers" are the Israelites of the generation that entered Canaan. The "old inhabitants" are the Canaanite peoples living in the land before them, whose destruction is described in Joshua and Judges.

4You hated them for doing the most hateful things: magic spells and evil sacrifices.

4Whom thou hatedst for doing most odious works of witchcrafts, and wicked sacrifices;

NoteThese are the charges the Hebrew scriptures bring against Canaanite religion: divination and magic, forbidden in Deuteronomy 18:10-12, and sacrifices offered in ways Israel was told to reject.

5They were also merciless murderers of children, eaters of human flesh, and keepers of feasts of blood.

5And also those merciless murderers of children, and devourers of man’s flesh, and the feasts of blood,

NoteChild sacrifice is the charge made against Canaanite worship in Deuteronomy 12:31. The cannibalism and the "feasts of blood" go beyond anything said in those older texts and belong to the sharper polemic of Greek-speaking Jewish writing from this author's own period.

6Their priests were destroyed with them, out of the middle of their crowd of idol worshipers, and so were the parents who killed with their own hands people who had no one to help them.

6With their priests out of the midst of their idolatrous crew, and the parents, that killed with their own hands souls destitute of help:

Note"Crew" in 1611 English meant simply a band or company of people, with no nautical sense. "Souls destitute of help" means helpless persons; "soul" in this older English usually means a life or a person rather than a spirit. The Greek is generally understood to mean the parents' own defenseless infants.

7This was so that the land you valued above every other land might receive a worthy settlement of God's children.

7That the land, which thou esteemedst above all other, might receive a worthy colony of God’s children.

Note"Colony" translates a Greek word for a body of settlers sent out from home to found a new community, the ordinary term for the Greek colonies of the author's world. The Greek word rendered "God's children" can equally mean God's servants, and covers both.

8Even so, you spared them, since they were human beings, and you sent wasps ahead of your army to destroy them a little at a time.

8Nevertheless even those thou sparedst as men, and didst send wasps, forerunners of thine host, to destroy them by little and little.

NoteThe wasps, or hornets, come from Exodus 23:28, Deuteronomy 7:20 and Joshua 24:12, where God sends hornets ahead of Israel to drive the inhabitants out. "Forerunners of thine host" means the advance troops of an army.

9It was not that you were unable to put the ungodly under the hand of the righteous in battle, or to wipe them out all at once with fierce animals or with a single harsh word.

9Not that thou wast unable to bring the ungodly under the hand of the righteous in battle, or to destroy them at once with cruel beasts, or with one rough word:

10Instead, by carrying out your judgments on them a little at a time, you gave them room to change their ways. You were not unaware that they were a wicked people, that their spite was in them from birth, and that their way of thinking would never change.

10But executing thy judgments upon them by little and little, thou gavest them place of repentance, not being ignorant that they were a naughty generation, and that their malice was bred in them, and that their cogitation would never be changed.

Note"Naughty" in 1611 English meant wicked or worthless, not mischievous in the way a child is. "Place of repentance" uses "place" in its older sense of room or opportunity, and "cogitation" means a settled way of thinking.

11For they were a cursed race from the beginning. And it was not out of fear of anyone that you left their sins unpunished.

11For it was a cursed seed from the beginning; neither didst thou for fear of any man give them pardon for those things wherein they sinned.

Note"Seed" means offspring or descendants. The phrase looks back to Genesis 9:25, where Noah curses Canaan, taken here as the ancestor of these peoples.

12For who can say, "What have you done?" Or who can stand up against your judgment? Or who can accuse you over the nations that perish, the nations you yourself made? Or who can come and stand against you to take revenge for unrighteous people?

12For who shall say, What hast thou done? or who shall withstand thy judgment? or who shall accuse thee for the nations that perish, whom thou made? or who shall come to stand against thee, to be revenged for the unrighteous men?

NoteThe whole verse is courtroom language. It asks in turn who could question the verdict, who could resist it, who could bring a charge, and who could act as the avenger, the relative whose duty it was to prosecute a killing on behalf of the dead.

13For there is no God besides you who cares for everyone, no one to whom you would have to show that your judgment is not unjust.

13For neither is there any God but thou that careth for all, to whom thou mightest shew that thy judgment is not unright.

14No king or ruler will be able to confront you about anyone you have punished.

14Neither shall king or tyrant be able to set his face against thee for any whom thou hast punished.

15Since you yourself are righteous, you order all things righteously. You consider it out of keeping with your power to condemn anyone who does not deserve to be punished.

15Forsomuch then as thou art righteous thyself, thou orderest all things righteously: thinking it not agreeable with thy power to condemn him that hath not deserved to be punished.

16For your power is the source of righteousness, and because you are the Lord of all, it makes you kind to everyone.

16For thy power is the beginning of righteousness, and because thou art the Lord of all, it maketh thee to be gracious unto all.

Note"Gracious" here translates a Greek verb meaning to spare, to hold back from striking, rather than to be pleasant. The argument is that because God is master of everything, he has nothing to prove and can afford to spare.

17When people will not believe that your power is complete, you show your strength; and among those who do know it, you expose their boldness.

17For when men will not believe that thou art of a full power, thou shewest thy strength, and among them that know it thou makest their boldness manifest.

NoteThe second half of this verse is difficult in Greek and is translated in opposite directions. It can mean that God exposes the insolence of those who do acknowledge his power, or that he confounds the boldness of those who deny it. Both readings are in current use.

18But you keep your power under control and judge fairly, and you govern us with great kindness, for you can use your power whenever you wish.

18But thou, mastering thy power, judgest with equity, and orderest us with great favour: for thou mayest use power when thou wilt.

Note"Mastering thy power" can mean either that God is master of all strength or that he holds his own strength in check; the Greek allows both. "Great favour" here means forbearance, the restraint of someone who could strike and chooses not to.

19By doing such things you taught your people that the righteous person should be merciful, and you gave your children good reason to hope, because you grant repentance for sins.

19But by such works hast thou taught thy people that the just man should be merciful, and hast made thy children to be of a good hope that thou givest repentance for sins.

20For if you punished the enemies of your children, who were condemned to death, with such care and slowness, giving them time and opportunity to be freed from their wickedness,

20For if thou didst punish the enemies of thy children, and the condemned to death, with such deliberation, giving them time and place, whereby they might be delivered from their malice:

Note"Time and place" is an idiom for opportunity. "Place" means room to act, not a location.

21then with how much care you judged your own sons, to whose fathers you swore oaths and made agreements full of good promises!

21With how great circumspection didst thou judge thine own sons, unto whose fathers thou hast sworn, and made covenants of good promises?

NoteThe "fathers" are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. A covenant is a binding agreement sworn under oath, the form in which Genesis describes God's promises to them.

22So while you correct us, you whip our enemies a thousand times harder, so that when we judge others we will think carefully about your goodness, and when we ourselves are judged we will look for mercy.

22Therefore, whereas thou dost chasten us, thou scourgest our enemies a thousand times more, to the intent that, when we judge, we should carefully think of thy goodness, and when we ourselves are judged, we should look for mercy.

NoteThe Greek says ten thousand times, a standard way of saying an uncountable amount rather than an exact figure; the KJV softens it to "a thousand times." To "scourge" is to flog with a whip, a judicial punishment rather than a casual beating.

23And so, since people had lived wild and unrighteous lives, you tormented them by means of the very things they held to be disgusting.

23Wherefore, whereas men have lived dissolutely and unrighteously, thou hast tormented them with their own abominations.

NoteFrom here to the end of the chapter the subject shifts from the Canaanites to the Egyptians. The "abominations" are the animals they honored as gods, which in the plagues of Exodus became the means of their suffering.

24For they wandered very far down the paths of error. They held to be gods the animals that were looked down on even among their enemies. They were fooled, like children with no understanding.

24For they went astray very far in the ways of error, and held them for gods, which even among the beasts of their enemies were despised, being deceived, as children of no understanding.

NoteEgyptian worship of animals, among them bulls, cats, crocodiles and beetles, was a standing target of ridicule for Greek and Jewish writers alike. The line claims these were creatures ranked low even by the standards of animals.

25So you sent them a judgment that mocked them, as you would to children who cannot yet reason.

25Therefore unto them, as to children without the use of reason, thou didst send a judgment to mock them.

NoteThe mocking judgment is the plagues of Exodus, where frogs, gnats and flies, creatures too small to fear, were what broke Egypt.

26But those who would not be changed by that correction, in which he went easy on them, will feel a judgment worthy of God.

26But they that would not be reformed by that correction, wherein he dallied with them, shall feel a judgment worthy of God.

Note"Dallied" in 1611 English meant trifled or played lightly with, and here describes a gentle, almost joking correction. The Greek has no "he" at this point; it speaks simply of "playful rebukes," which the KJV turns into a clause.

27For look: the very things they resented when they were punished, that is, the creatures they had thought were gods, were the things they were punished by. When they saw it, they recognized as the true God the one they had refused to know before. And so the most extreme condemnation came upon them.

27For, look, for what things they grudged, when they were punished, that is, for them whom they thought to be gods; now being punished in them, when they saw it, they acknowledged him to be the true God, whom before they denied to know: and therefore came extreme damnation upon them.

Note"Grudged" in 1611 English meant grumbled at or resented. "Damnation" meant a sentence of condemnation handed down by a judge, without the narrower later sense of eternal punishment, so "extreme damnation" is the final and heaviest verdict. The creatures meant are the worshiped animals of verses 23 to 25.