Wisdom of Solomon 4

It is better to have no children and to have virtue, because the memory of virtue never dies. It is recognized by God and by people alike.

1Better it is to have no children, and to have virtue: for the memorial thereof is immortal: because it is known with God, and with men.

NoteIn the world this book was written for, a large family was the visible mark of a blessed life, and having no children was treated as a misfortune and a reproach. The opening line deliberately overturns that assumption. "Memorial" here means the memory people keep of someone, with a hint of the monument or name left behind.

2When virtue is here, people take it as their example. When it is gone, they long for it. It wears a crown and marches in triumph forever, the winner of a contest for prizes that nothing can stain.

2When it is present, men take example at it; and when it is gone, they desire it: it weareth a crown, and triumpheth for ever, having gotten the victory, striving for undefiled rewards.

NoteThe picture comes from Greek athletic games and a victory parade: the winner was crowned with a wreath and led through the city in triumph. The "undefiled rewards" are prizes won cleanly, with nothing in the winning that stains them.

3But the growing crowd of children born to the ungodly will not do well. Their illegitimate shoots will not put down deep roots, and they will not build any firm foundation.

3But the multiplying brood of the ungodly shall not thrive, nor take deep rooting from bastard slips, nor lay any fast foundation.

NoteA "slip" is a cutting taken from a plant and pushed into the ground to root. The whole argument runs on a plant image. Children born outside a lawful marriage had no legal claim on the family land or name, so the line they begin has nothing to root in and nothing to build on.

4Even if their branches bloom for a while, they do not stand firm. They will be shaken by the wind, and the force of the winds will tear them out by the roots.

4For though they flourish in branches for a time; yet standing not last, they shall be shaken with the wind, and through the force of winds they shall be rooted out.

5Their unripe branches will be broken off. Their fruit will be useless, never ready to eat, and good for nothing at all.

5The imperfect branches shall be broken off, their fruit unprofitable, not ripe to eat, yea, meet for nothing.

NoteIn the King James, "meet for nothing" uses "meet" in its older sense of fit or suitable. The phrase means fit for no use at all.

6For children conceived in unlawful beds are witnesses of wickedness against their parents when they are put on trial.

6For children begotten of unlawful beds are witnesses of wickedness against their parents in their trial.

Note"Unlawful beds" means sexual unions outside lawful marriage, chiefly adultery. The trial is not identified: the Greek can mean a formal examination in a court or the final reckoning this book keeps returning to, and the wording leaves both open.

7But even if death comes upon the righteous man early, he will be at rest.

7But though the righteous be prevented with death, yet shall he be in rest.

NoteIn the King James, "prevented with death" uses "prevent" in its 1611 sense of coming first or arriving ahead of time. It means death reached him early, not that death was somehow stopped.

8Honorable old age is not the kind that is measured by how long a person has lived, and it is not counted by a number of years.

8For honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years.

NoteLong life was widely read as the reward of a good life, and an early death as a verdict on the person who died. Verses 8 and 9 take the vocabulary of that assumption, honorable age and gray hair, and hand it to something other than years.

9For people, wisdom is what gray hair means, and a life without a stain on it is what old age means.

9But wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age.

NoteGray hair carried real social weight. Age brought authority, and respect for the aged was written into both law and custom. To say that wisdom is a person's gray hair is to claim that standing for the wise whatever their age.

10He pleased God and was loved by him. So, while he was living among sinners, he was taken away.

10He pleased God, and was beloved of him: so that living among sinners he was translated.

NoteThe man is never named. The description matches Enoch in Genesis, of whom it is said that he "walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." The King James word "translated" is older English for carried across or moved from one place to another, so it means taken away bodily rather than dying in the ordinary way.

11Yes, he was taken away quickly, so that wickedness would not change the way he understood things, and dishonesty would not trick his soul.

11Yea speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul.

12For the spell of wickedness hides the things that are good, and the wandering of desire wears down an innocent mind.

12For the bewitching of naughtiness doth obscure things that are honest; and the wandering of concupiscence doth undermine the simple mind.

NoteFour King James words have shifted since 1611. "Naughtiness" meant serious wickedness, not small mischief. "Honest" meant honorable or good, not truthful. "Concupiscence" is strong craving, often sexual desire. A "simple" mind is an innocent, unguarded one, not a stupid one.

13Made complete in a short time, he fulfilled a long time.

13He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time:

Note"Made perfect" translates a Greek word meaning brought to completion or full maturity, the way a task is finished or a fruit ripens, rather than made morally flawless. The line turns on time: he reached in a few years the finished state that long life was supposed to produce.

14For his soul pleased the Lord. That is why he hurried to take him away from among the wicked.

14For his soul pleased the Lord: therefore hasted he to take him away from among the wicked.

NoteWho does the hurrying is unclear in the Greek, and translators have long split over it: either God hurried to take him out of the world, or the man himself hurried away from the middle of wickedness. Both readings are ancient.

15The people saw this and did not understand it. They did not store this up in their minds: that his grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and that he watches over the ones he has chosen.

15This the people saw, and understood it not, neither laid they up this in their minds, That his grace and mercy is with his saints, and that he hath respect unto his chosen.

Note"Saints" here simply means holy ones, the people set apart as God's own, with no suggestion of a formal title conferred later. The King James phrase "hath respect unto" means looks on with favor, pays attention to.

16So the righteous man who is dead will condemn the ungodly who are still alive, and the young person who is brought to completion quickly will condemn the many years and the old age of the unrighteous man.

16Thus the righteous that is dead shall condemn the ungodly which are living; and youth that is soon perfected the many years and old age of the unrighteous.

Note"Condemn" here means condemnation by contrast, the way a truthful witness in court shows a liar up without saying a word about him. The dead man passes no sentence; his life stands as the evidence.

17For they will see the end of the wise man, and they will not understand what God decided about him in his plan, or why the Lord set him in safety.

17For they shall see the end of the wise, and shall not understand what God in his counsel hath decreed of him, and to what end the Lord hath set him in safety.

18They will see him and look down on him, but God will laugh at them in scorn. After that they will be a worthless corpse and a disgrace among the dead forever.

18They shall see him, and despise him; but God shall laugh them to scorn: and they shall hereafter be a vile carcase, and a reproach among the dead for evermore.

Note"Laugh them to scorn" is an old idiom for open mockery. The disgrace of the corpse is not a small detail: in the ancient world how a body was treated after death mattered enormously, and to lie dishonored and spoken of with contempt was among the worst fates imaginable.

19For he will tear them apart and throw them down headfirst, so that they cannot speak. He will shake them off their foundation. They will be left in complete ruin and in pain, and the memory of them will perish.

19For he shall rend them, and cast them down headlong, that they shall be speechless; and he shall shake them from the foundation; and they shall be utterly laid waste, and be in sorrow; and their memorial shall perish.

Note"Memorial" again means the remembrance and the name that survive a person. The loss of it here is the deliberate mirror of verse 1, where the memorial of virtue never dies. "Shake them from the foundation" picks up the building image from verse 3.

20When the accounts of their sins are added up, they will come in fear. Their own wrongdoing will convict them to their face.

20And when they cast up the accounts of their sins, they shall come with fear: and their own iniquities shall convince them to their face.

Note"Cast up the accounts" is bookkeeping language: the sins are totaled like a column of figures in a ledger. In the King James, "convince them to their face" uses "convince" in its older legal sense of convict, to prove guilty in open court.