Wisdom of Solomon 16: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter sets two groups side by side under the same forces of nature. Those who oppressed God's people were tormented by swarms of creatures, by locusts and flies with no cure, and by strange storms and fire; God's own people were given quails and bread from heaven, and when snakes bit them they were troubled for a short time and healed by God's word rather than by medicine. The writer says that creation, serving its Maker, strengthens itself against the unrighteous and slackens for those who trust God, and closes by saying we must rise before the sun to give thanks, since the hope of the ungrateful melts like winter frost.

Claim by Claim

1. 16:1
   • They were punished deservedly by means of creatures like those involved in their offense.
   • They were tormented by a multitude of small creatures.
2. 16:2
   • In place of that punishment, God dealt kindly with his own people.
   • God prepared food of an unfamiliar taste for his own people.
   • The food prepared was quails.
   • The quails were meant to stir up their appetite.
3. 16:3
   • The purpose was that the enemies, wanting food, would loathe even the food they necessarily craved.
   • Their loathing was caused by the hideous sight of the creatures sent among them.
   • God's people went without food for a short time.
   • God's people were then given a share of food of an unfamiliar taste.
4. 16:4
   • It was necessary that inescapable want come upon those who acted as tyrants.
   • For God's people it was only necessary that they be shown how their enemies were tormented.
5. 16:5
   • A terrible fierceness of wild beasts came upon God's people.
   • God's people were perishing from the bites of crooked serpents.
   • God's wrath did not continue to the end.
6. 16:6
   • They were troubled for a short time as a warning.
   • They were given a sign of salvation.
   • The sign was to remind them of the commandment of God's law.
7. 16:7
   • The one who turned toward the sign was not saved by what he saw.
   • The one who turned toward the sign was saved by God.
   • God is the Saviour of all.
8. 16:8
   • By this God made his enemies acknowledge that he is the one who delivers from every evil.
9. 16:9
   • The bites of locusts and flies killed the enemies.
   • No remedy was found to save their life.
   • They deserved to be punished by such creatures.
10. 16:10
    • The teeth of venomous serpents did not overcome God's sons.
    • God's mercy was continually with them.
    • God's mercy healed them.
11. 16:11
    • They were bitten so that they would remember God's words.
    • They were saved quickly.
    • They were saved quickly so that they would not fall into deep forgetfulness.
    • They were saved quickly so that they would remain mindful of God's goodness.
12. 16:12
    • It was not an herb that restored them to health.
    • It was not a soothing ointment that restored them to health.
    • God's word restored them to health.
    • God's word heals all things.
13. 16:13
    • God has power over life and death.
    • God leads down to the gates of the underworld.
    • God brings up again from the gates of the underworld.
14. 16:14
    • A man kills by his malice.
    • The spirit, once it has gone out, does not return.
    • The soul that has been taken away does not come back.
15. 16:15
    • It is not possible to escape God's hand.
16. 16:16
    • The ungodly refused to acknowledge God.
    • The ungodly were scourged by the strength of God's arm.
    • They were pursued by strange rains, hails, and relentless storms.
    • They could not escape these storms.
    • They were consumed by fire.
17. 16:17
    • The most astonishing thing was that the fire had greater force in water.
    • Water quenches all things.
    • The created world fights on behalf of the righteous.
18. 16:18
    • At one time the flame was restrained.
    • The flame was restrained so that it would not burn up the creatures sent against the ungodly.
    • The restraint was so that the ungodly themselves would see and understand that they were being pursued by the judgment of God.
19. 16:19
    • At another time the fire burns in the middle of water beyond the power of fire.
    • That burning was to destroy the produce of an unrighteous land.
20. 16:20
    • Instead of these things, God fed his own people with the food of angels.
    • God sent them bread from heaven ready without their labor.
    • The bread could satisfy every delight.
    • The bread suited every taste.
21. 16:21
    • God's sustenance showed his sweetness to his children.
    • The food served the desire of the one eating it.
    • The food changed itself to match each person's liking.
22. 16:22
    • Snow and ice withstood fire and did not melt.
    • This was so that people would know that fire was destroying the enemies' crops.
    • The fire burned in the hail.
    • The fire flashed in the rain.
23. 16:23
    • This same fire forgot its own strength.
    • It forgot its own strength so that the righteous might be fed.
24. 16:24
    • Creation serves God, who is its Maker.
    • Creation strains its strength against the unrighteous for their punishment.
    • Creation slackens its strength for the benefit of those who trust in God.
25. 16:25
    • At that time creation was changed into all forms.
    • Creation obeyed God's all-nourishing bounty.
    • Creation served according to the desire of those who were in need.
26. 16:26
    • The purpose was that God's children, whom he loves, might learn something.
    • They were to learn that it is not the growing of crops that nourishes a person.
    • They were to learn that God's word preserves those who trust in him.
27. 16:27
    • What was not destroyed by fire melted away.
    • It melted when warmed by a faint sunbeam.
28. 16:28
    • This was so that it would be known that we must rise before the sun to give God thanks.
    • We must pray to God at daybreak.
29. 16:29
    • The hope of the ungrateful will melt like winter frost.
    • The hope of the ungrateful will run away like useless water.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

16:1

The chapter runs a comparison that continues to its end: the same kind of thing that punished the Egyptians fed or spared the Israelites. The creatures are the frogs, gnats, flies and locusts of the plagues in Exodus 8 to 10. Egyptian religion honored gods shown in animal form, which is the point of "creatures like the ones they worshiped." In the King James "beasts" here does not mean large animals but small vermin.

16:2

The quails are from Exodus 16:13 and Numbers 11:31, flocks that landed around the Israelite camp in the desert. In 1611 English "meat" meant food of any kind, not flesh in particular, so the King James "meat of a strange taste" means food with an unfamiliar flavor.

16:3

The King James "penury" means extreme want, going without. "Lothe" is simply the older spelling of loathe.

16:4

"Them exercising tyranny" means the Egyptians, in their role as slave masters over the Israelites.

16:5

The snakes are the ones that bit the Israelites in the desert in Numbers 21:6, after they complained against God and Moses.

16:6

The "sign of salvation" is the bronze snake Moses made and set on a pole, which the dying could look at and live (Numbers 21:8 to 9). The writer describes it without naming it.

16:7

"He that turned himself toward it" means the person who looked up at the bronze snake on the pole.

16:9

In the King James, "grasshoppers" means locusts. Locusts and flies were two of the plagues on Egypt (Exodus 8:21 to 24 and 10:12 to 15). "Worthy to be punished" means deserving of punishment, not admirable.

16:10

The King James "dragons" translates a Greek word for large snakes. No winged fire-breathing creature is meant; these are the desert serpents of verse 5.

16:11

"Pricked" in the King James means stung or bitten.

16:12

A "mollifying plaister" is a softening poultice, a medicinal paste spread on a cloth and laid against the skin, standard wound treatment in the ancient world.

16:13

The King James "hell" here renders Hades, the underworld where in Greek usage all the dead go, good and bad alike. It is the destination of the dead in general rather than a place of punishment for the wicked.

16:14

Ancient writers used "spirit" (the breath of life) and "soul" (the self that lives) as overlapping terms. The claim is about limits on human power: a murderer can end a life but cannot recall what he has sent away.

16:16

"Scourged" means whipped. The strange rains, hail and fire are the seventh plague of Exodus 9:22 to 25, a hailstorm with fire running along the ground among it.

16:17

"The world" here means the created order, nature itself, and the Greek word also carries the sense of an orderly whole. The idea is that the elements take sides.

16:18

"The beasts that were sent against the ungodly" are the plague creatures of verse 1. The flame was held back from burning them so the Egyptians would read the event as a judgment rather than an accident of weather.

16:19

The "unjust land" is Egypt, and the crops are the flax and barley flattened by the hailstorm in Exodus 9:31.

16:20

The bread from heaven is the manna of Exodus 16, a flaky substance that appeared on the ground each morning. "Angels' food" echoes the King James of Psalm 78:25, "man did eat angels' food." "Without their labour" means it cost them no work to produce.

16:21

"Thy sustenance" means the food God supplied. The tradition that manna tasted like whatever the eater wished is a later expansion of Exodus 16:31, which says only that it tasted like wafers made with honey.

16:22

The image works in two directions at once and the text keeps both. The hail of the Egyptian plague held fire inside it without melting, and the manna, which Exodus 16:14 describes as lying like frost on the ground, survived being baked though it melted in the morning sun.

16:23

"This again did even forget his own strength" means the fire lost its usual power, so that the manna could be cooked without being burned away.

16:24

In the King James, "the creature" means creation as a whole, everything made, not a single animal.

16:25

"Altered into all fashions" means changed into every kind of form: the manna taking on whatever flavor each person wanted.

16:26

The thought follows Deuteronomy 8:3, where God fed Israel with manna so they would learn that people do not live by bread alone.

16:27

Exodus 16:21 says that when the sun grew hot the manna melted, so the day's supply had to be gathered early.

16:28

In 1611 English "prevent" meant to go before or get there ahead of, not to stop or hinder, so "prevent the sun" means to be up before sunrise. "Dayspring" means daybreak, the first light.

16:29

"Hoar frost" is the white frost that forms overnight and vanishes in the morning. "Unprofitable water" is water that runs off and does no good, watering nothing.