Wisdom of Solomon 3: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter sets the death of the righteous against the fate of the ungodly. It says the souls of the righteous are in God's hand and at peace, even though people without sense counted their departure a disaster; God tested them like gold, and they will shine, judge nations, and rule over peoples. It then says the ungodly are punished according to their own thinking, and that their wives, children, and descendants come to nothing. Against that, it calls blessed the childless woman who is undefiled and the eunuch who has done no wrong, and it says the end of an unrighteous generation is horrible.

Claim by Claim

1. 3:1
   • The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God.
   • No torment will touch the souls of the righteous.
2. 3:2
   • In the eyes of the foolish, the righteous seemed to have died.
   • Their departure was reckoned to be a misfortune.
3. 3:3
   • Their going away from us was reckoned to be utter destruction.
   • The righteous are at peace.
4. 3:4
   • Even though the righteous are punished in the sight of men, their hope is full of immortality.
5. 3:5
   • Having been disciplined a little, the righteous will be greatly benefited.
   • God tested the righteous.
   • God found the righteous worthy of himself.
6. 3:6
   • God tested them like gold in a furnace.
   • God accepted them like a whole burnt offering.
7. 3:7
   • At the time of their visitation the righteous will shine out.
   • They will run about like sparks through stubble.
8. 3:8
   • The righteous will judge nations.
   • The righteous will rule over peoples.
   • Their Lord will reign forever.
9. 3:9
   • Those who trust in him will understand truth.
   • Those faithful in love will remain with him.
   • Grace and mercy belong to his holy ones.
   • He watches over his chosen ones.
10. 3:10
    • The ungodly will be punished in keeping with their own reasoning.
    • The ungodly disregarded the righteous.
    • The ungodly rebelled against the Lord.
11. 3:11
    • Whoever despises wisdom and instruction is wretched.
    • Their hope is empty.
    • Their labors are without fruit.
    • Their works are useless.
12. 3:12
    • Their wives are foolish.
    • Their children are wicked.
13. 3:13
    • Their offspring is under a curse.
    • The barren woman who is undefiled is blessed.
    • She has not known a bed in transgression.
    • She will have fruit at the visitation of souls.
14. 3:14
    • The eunuch who has committed no lawless deed with his hands is blessed.
    • The eunuch who has not devised wicked things against God is blessed.
    • A choice gift will be given to him for his faithfulness.
    • A more pleasing portion in the temple of the Lord will be given to him.
15. 3:15
    • The fruit of good labors is glorious.
    • The root of understanding never falls away.
16. 3:16
    • The children of adulterers will not reach maturity.
    • The offspring of an unlawful union will be wiped out.
17. 3:17
    • Even if they live long, they will be held of no account.
    • Their old age at the last will be without honor.
18. 3:18
    • If they die quickly, they have no hope.
    • They have no consolation on the day of judgment.
19. 3:19
    • The end of an unrighteous generation is grievous.

Words Worth Explaining

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

3:1

"In the hand of God" is a Hebrew way of saying in his keeping and under his protection; it is not a statement about where the souls are located. The "But" that opens the chapter answers chapter 2, where the author quoted the ungodly planning to test and kill the righteous man.

3:2

"Departure" translates a Greek word for setting out on a journey, used here as a gentle term for dying. "The unwise" means people lacking sense or judgment, not people lacking education.

3:4

"Immortality" translates the Greek athanasia, deathlessness. This book was written in Greek rather than Hebrew, and uses the vocabulary of Greek philosophy for the soul outlasting the body, language the older Hebrew scriptures do not use.

3:5

In 1611 English "chastised" meant disciplined or corrected, and "proved" meant tested or assayed, the way metal is tested for purity. Neither carries the modern sense of scolding or of proving a point in an argument.

3:6

Gold was refined by heating the ore in a furnace until the impurities separated out, and the same image was commonly used for testing a person. A burnt offering was the one sacrifice burned up entirely on the altar, with no portion kept back to be eaten by priest or worshiper, so it stood for something handed over whole.

3:7

"Visitation" means the moment when God comes to look into human affairs and act, whether to reward or to punish; it does not mean a social call. "Stubble" is the short stalks left standing in a field after harvest, which farmers burned off; fire runs through them fast and bright, which is the point of the comparison.

3:8

"The people" translates a plural, peoples, meaning nations. It does not mean ordinary folk as opposed to their rulers.

3:9

"Saints" in the King James means holy ones, people set apart for God, not a special class of canonized figures, and "his elect" means simply the ones he has chosen. Greek manuscripts differ at the end of this verse: some carry a separate clause about his care for the chosen, as the King James does, and some fold it into the previous phrase.

3:10

"Imaginations" in 1611 English meant reasonings, plans or schemes, not daydreams or fantasies. The Greek says they are punished in a way that matches the reasoning they chose.

3:11

"Nurture" here means discipline and training, the correction that forms a person. It does not mean tenderness or nurturing care. The Greek word is paideia, the whole business of educating and correcting a child.

3:13

In this culture childlessness carried public disgrace and was widely read as a sign of divine disfavor, which is what makes the reversal here pointed. "Known" is the standard biblical euphemism for sexual relations. "Fruit" ordinarily means children; here it is promised as a reward instead, at "the visitation of souls," the time when God examines souls, the same word used in verse 7.

3:14

A eunuch is a castrated man, commonly employed as a servant in royal households. The law at Deuteronomy 23:1 barred such a man from the assembly of the Lord, which is the background against which a place in the temple is promised him. The close of the verse is cramped in the King James; the Greek says he receives a more pleasing portion, a better share, in the Lord's sanctuary.

3:15

A root is the part of a plant that stays in the ground and holds it up. Wisdom is being called a root here.

3:16

"Perfection" in 1611 English meant completion or full growth, not moral flawlessness. "Seed" means offspring, and "an unrighteous bed" means a union outside lawful marriage.

3:17

"Their last age" means their old age, the final stretch of their lives.

3:18

"The day of trial" here means the day a verdict is reached about them, not a stretch of hardship. The Greek word means examination and decision.

3:19

"Generation" here means a breed or kind of people, the whole class of them, not a span of time or a single age group.