Jul 8 - Wisdom 1-4
Wisdom
1Love justice, you who judge the land. Think of the Lord in goodness and seek him in simplicity of heart2For he is found by those who do not test him, yet he reveals himself to those who have faith in him3For perverse thoughts separate from God. But his virtue, when it is tested, corrects the foolish4For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subdued by sin5For the holy spirit of instruction will flee from falsehood, and he will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and he will not be reached when iniquity overcomes6For the spirit of wisdom is benevolent, and will not release the evil speaker from his talk, because God is a witness of his temperament, and a true examiner of his heart, and an auditor of his words7For the spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and he who contains all things, retains knowledge of every voice8Therefore, he who speaks unjust things cannot escape notice, nor will the chastising judgment pass him by9For inquiry will be made into the thoughts of the impious, his conversation also will reach the hearing of God, to the chastising of his iniquities10For the zealous ear hears all things, and the disturbance of complaining will not be hidden11Therefore, keep yourselves from complaining, which benefits nothing, and refrain your tongue from slander, because secret conversation will not pass into nothingness, and the mouth that lies kills the soul12Do not court death by the error of your life, nor procure your destruction by the works of your hands13because God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the loss of the living14For he created all things that they might exist, and he made the nations of the world curable, and there is no medicine of extermination in them, nor a kingdom of hell upon the earth15For justice is perpetual and immortal16But the impious, with hands and words, have called death to them, and, esteeming it a friend, they have fallen away and have made a covenant with death, because they deserved to take part in it
1For they have said, reasoning with themselves incorrectly: "Our lifetime is brief and tedious, and there is no relief within the limits of man, and no one is acknowledged to have returned from the dead2For we are born from nothing, and after this we will be as if we had not been, because the breath in our nostrils is like smoke, and conversation sends out sparks from the stirring of our heart3therefore, when it is extinguished, our body will be ashes, and our spirit will be diffused like a soft breeze, and our life will pass away like the wisp of a cloud, just as a mist is dissolved when it is driven away by the rays of the sun and overpowered by its heat4And in time our name will surrender to oblivion, and no one will have remembrance of our works5For our time is like the passing of a shadow, and nothing can reverse our end, for it is signed and sealed, and cannot be returned6Therefore, hurry, let us enjoy the good things of the present time, and let us quickly use up passing things, just as in youth7Let us indulge ourselves with costly wine and ointments, and let no flower of youth pass us by8Let us surround ourselves with rosebuds before they wither; let no meadow be left untouched by our indulgence9Let no one among us be exempt from our indulgence. Let us leave behind tokens of enjoyment everywhere, for this is our portion, and this is fate10Let us oppress the poor just man, and not spare the widow, nor respect the aged grey hairs of elders11But let our strength be the law of justice, for what is weak is found to be useless12Therefore, let us encircle the just, because he is useless to us, and he is against our works, and he reproaches us with our legal offenses, and makes known to us the sins of our way of life13He promises that he has the knowledge of God and he calls himself the son of God14He was made among us to expose our very thoughts15He is grievous for us even to behold, for his life is unlike other men’s lives, and immutable are his ways16It is as if we are considered by him to be insignificant, and he abstains from our ways as from filth; he prefers the newly justified, and he glories that he has God for his father17Let us see, then, if his words are true, and let us test what will happen to him, and then we will know what his end will be18For if he is the true son of God, he will receive him and deliver him from the hands of his adversaries19Let us examine him with insult and torture, that we may know his reverence and try his patience20Let us condemn him to a most shameful death, for, according to his own words, God will care for him.21These things they thought, and they were mistaken, for their own malice blinded them22And they were ignorant of the mysteries of God; they neither hoped for the reward of justice, nor judged the value of holy souls23For God created man to be immortal, and he made him in the image of his own likeness24But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world25yet they imitate him, who are from his side
1But the souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment of death will touch them2In the eyes of the foolish, they seemed to die, and their departure was considered an affliction3and their going away from us, a banishment. Yet they are in peace4And though, in the sight of men, they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality5Troubled in few things, in many things they will be well compensated, because God has tested them and found them worthy of himself6Like gold in the furnace, he has proved them, and as a holocaust victim, he has received them, and in the time of their visitatio7they will shine, and they will dash about like sparks among stubble8They will judge the nations and they will rule over the people, and their Lord will reign forever9Those who trust in him, will understand the truth, and those who are faithful in love will rest in him, because grace and peace is for his elect10But the impious will be chastised according to their thoughts, for they have neglected the just and have retreated from the Lord11For whoever abandons wisdom and instruction is unhappy, and their hope is empty, and their labors without fruit, and their works useless12Their wives are foolish and their sons are wicked; the things that serve them are accursed13Therefore, fertile is the barren and undefiled, who has not known transgressions in bed; she will bear fruit by caring for holy souls14And fertile is the celibate, who has not wrought iniquity with his hands, nor thought wickedness against God; for to him will be given a special gift of faith and a very welcome place in the temple of the Lord15For the fruit of good labors is glorious and the root of wisdom shall never perish16But the sons of adulterers will not reach completion, and the offspring of a sinful bed will be banished17And if they live long, they will be counted as nothing, and their last years of old-age will be without honor18And if they die quickly, they will have no hope, nor words of comfort on the day of reckoning19For the iniquities of the people have a dreadful result
1O how beautiful is the chaste fruit of purity! For its remembrance is immortal, because it is observed both with God and with men2When it is present, they imitate it, and they desire it when it has withdrawn itself, and it triumphs crowned forever, winning the reward of undefiled conflicts3But the great number of the many different kinds of the impious will not be to their advantage, and spurious seedlings will not be given deep roots, nor will they establish any firm foundation4And if they spring forth with branches for a time, yet, being set infirmly, they will be shaken by the wind, and, by the superabundance of the winds, they will be eradicated5For the incomplete branches will be broken, and their fruits will be useless, and bitter to eat, and fit for nothing6For all the sons born from iniquity are witnesses of wickedness against their parents at their interrogation7But the just, if death seizes him beforehand, will be refreshed8For old age is made venerable, neither by lasting long, nor by counting the number of years; yet understanding is the gray hair of wisdom for men9and an immaculate life is a generation of sages10Pleasing to God, having been made beloved, and living among sinners, he was transformed11He was quickly taken away, for malice could not alter his understanding, nor could deceit beguile his soul12For fascination with entertainment obscures good things, and the unfaithfulness of desire subverts the mind without malice13Completed in a short time, he fulfilled many times14Truly his soul was pleasing to God. Because of this, he hastened to bring him out of the midst of iniquities, but the people see this and do not understand, nor do they place such things in their hearts15that the grace and mercy of God is with his holy ones, and he watches over his elect16But the just dead will condemn the impious living, and youth hastily completed results in a long unjust life17For they will see the end of the wise, and will neither understand, nor imagine, that he is of God, and that therefore the Lord has safeguarded him18For they will see and despise him, but the Lord will ridicule them19And after this, they will fall without honor and with contempt among the dead forever. Seeing that they are puffed up and speechless, he will shatter them and will shake them from the foundations all the way to the top, to their utter desolation, and they will grieve and their remembrance will perish20They will hurry with fear at the understanding of their sins, and their iniquities will bear witness against them