Wisdom of solomon 12

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¹Lord, how good, and how sweet is thy Spirit in all things or in us;

²and therefore thou chastisest by parts these men that err; and thou admonishest or thou warnest, of which things they sin, and thou speakest to them, that when they have forsaken malice, they believe in thee, Lord.

³For thou wouldest lose those eld or old dwellers of thine holy land, which thou loathest;

⁴for they did works hateful to thee, by medicines, that is, by witchcrafts, and false divinings, and sacrifices offered to fiends, and unjust or unrightwise sacrifices;

⁵and the slayers of their sons, without mercy, and eaters of entrails or the bowels of men, and devourers of blood;

⁶and by the hands of our fathers thou wouldest lose from thy middle sacrament, that is, from Judea, fathers and mothers, authors of souls, that is, of their children, unhelped;

⁷that our fathers should take the worthy pilgrimage of God’s children, which is to thee the dearworthiest land of all.

⁸But also thou sparedest these as men, and thou sentest wasps, the before-goers of thine host, that those or they should destroy them little and little.

⁹Not for thou were unmighty to make wicked or unpious men subject to just or rightwise men in battle, either to destroy at once, by cruel beasts, either by an hard word;

¹⁰but thou deemedest by parts, and gavest place to penance, and knewest, that the nation of them was wayward or shrewd, and their malice was kindly, that is, made hard by long custom, and that their thought might not be changed without end.

¹¹For it was a cursed seed at or from the beginning. And thou not dreading any man, gavest forgiveness to the sins of them.

¹²For why who shall say to thee, What hast thou done? either who shall stand against thy doom? either who shall come in thy sight, to be avenger of wicked men? either who shall areckon to thee or who shall reckon to thee, if nations perish, which thou madest?

¹³For why none other than thou is God, to whom is charge of all things, that thou show, that thou deemest doom not unjustly. Forsooth there is none other God than thou, to whom is care of all, that thou show, for not unrightwisely thou deemest doom.

¹⁴Neither king neither tyrant in thy sight shall inquire of these men, which thou hast lost or destroyed.

¹⁵Therefore since thou art just, thou disposest justly all things, or Since then thou art rightwise, all things rightwisely thou disposest; also Father, thou condemnest him, that oweth not to be punished, and thou guessest him a stranger from thy virtue.

¹⁶For why thy virtue is the beginning of rightfulness or of rightwiseness; and for this, that thou art lord of all men, thou makest thee to spare all men.

¹⁷For thou, that art not believed to be perfect or full ended in virtue, thou showest virtue; and thou leadest over these men, that know not thee, in hardiness.

¹⁸But thou, lord or lordshipper of virtue, deemest with peaceableness, and disposest us with great reverence; for it is subject to thee to be able to, when thou wilt.

¹⁹Forsooth thou hast taught thy people by such works, that it behooveth a judge to be just, and benign, either merciful; and thou madest thy sons of good hope, for thou deemest, and givest place to penance in sins.

²⁰For if thou tormentedest the enemies of thy servants, and men due to death with so great perceiving, either attentiveness, and deliveredest, and gavest time and place or giving time and place, by which they might be changed from malice;

²¹with how great diligence deemest thou thy sons, to whose fathers thou gavest oaths and covenants of good promises?

²²Therefore when thou givest chastising or discipline to us, thou beatest or scourgest manyfold our enemies, that we, deeming, think thy goodness; and when it is deemed of us, that we hope thy mercy.

²³Wherefore and to them, that lived unwisely, and unjustly in their life, thou gavest sovereign torments, by these things which they worshipped.

²⁴For they erred full long in the way of error, and guessed to be gods these things that be superfluous in beasts, and lived by custom of young children unwittingly or living by manner of unwise young children.

²⁵For this thing thou gavest doom, into scorn, as to children unwitting or unwise;

²⁶but they, that were not amended by scornings and blamings, feeled the worthy doom of God.

²⁷For they bare heavily in these things, which they suffered, in which things they suffering had indignation or disdained; they seeing him, whom they denied sometime them to know, knew him very God, by these things which they guessed gods among them, when those were destroyed; for which thing and the end of their condemnation shall come on them.