Wisdom 11

DOUAI-RHEIMS	NEW JERUSALEM
1 She prospered their works in the hands of the holy prophet.	1 She made their actions successful, by means of a holy prophet.
2 They went through wildernesses that were not inhabited, and in desert places they pitched their tents.	2 They journeyed through an unpeopled desert and pitched their tents in inaccessible places.
3 They stood against their enemies, and revenged themselves of their adversaries.	3 They stood firm against their enemies, fought off their foes.
4 They were thirsty, and they called upon thee, and water was given them out of the high rock, and a refreshment of their thirst out of the hard stone.	4 On you they cal ed when they were thirsty, and from the rocky cliff water was given them, from hardstone a remedy for their thirst.
5 For by what things their enemies were punished, when their drink failed them, while the children of Israel abounded therewith and rejoiced:	5 Thus, what had served to punish their enemies became a benefit for them in their difficulties.
6 By the same things they in their need were benefited.	6 Whereas their enemies had only the ever-flowing source of a river fouled with mingled blood and mud,
7 For instead of a fountain of an ever running river, thou gavest human blood to the unjust.	7 to punish them for their decree of infanticide, you gave your people, against al hope, water inabundance,
8 And whilst they were diminished for a manifest reproof of their murdering the infants, thou gavest to thine abundant water unlooked for:	8 once you had shown by the thirst that they were experiencing how severely you were punishing theirenemies.
9 Shewing by the thirst that was then, how thou didst exalt thine, and didst kill their adversaries.	9 From their own ordeals, which were only loving correction, they realised how an angry sentence wastormenting the godless;
10 For when they were tried, and chastised with mercy, they knew how the wicked were judged with wrath and tormented.	10 for you had tested your own as a father admonishes, but the others you had punished as a pitilessking condemns,
11 For thou didst admonish and try them as a father: but the others, as a severe king, thou didst examine and condemn.	11 and, whether far or near, they were equal y afflicted.
12 For whether absent or present, they were tormented alike.	12 For a double sorrow seized on them, and a groaning at the memory of the past;
13 For a double affliction came upon them, and a groaning for the remembrance of things past.	13 when they learned that the punishments they were receiving were beneficial to the others, theyrealised it was the Lord,
14 For when they heard that by their punishments the others were benefited, they remembered the Lord, wondering at the end of what was come to pass.	14 while for the man whom long before they had exposed and later mockingly rebuffed, they felt onlyadmiration when al was done, having suffered a thirst so different from that of the upright.
15 For whom they scorned before, when he was thrown out at the time of his being wickedly exposed to perish, him they admired in the end, when they saw the event: their thirsting being unlike to that of the just.	15 For their foolish and wicked notions which led them astray into worshipping mindless reptiles andcontemptible beetles, you sent a horde of mindless animals to punish them
16 But for the foolish devices of their iniquity, because some being deceived worshipped dumb serpents and worthless beasts, thou didst send upon them a multitude of dumb beasts for vengeance.	16 and to teach them that the agent of sin is the agent of punishment.
17 That they might know that by what things a man sinneth, by the same also he is tormented.	17 And indeed your al -powerful hand which created the world from formless matter, did not lack meansto unleash a horde of bears or savage lions on them
18 For thy almighty hand, which made the world of matter without form, was not unable to send upon them a multitude of bears, or fierce lions,	18 or unknown beasts, newly created, ful of rage, breathing out fire, or puffing out stinking smoke, orflashing fearful sparks from their eyes,
19 Or unknown beasts of a new kind, full of rage: either breathing out a fiery vapour, or sending forth a stinking smoke, or shooting horrible sparks out of their eyes:	19 beasts able not only to destroy them, being so savage, but even to strike them dead by their terrifyingappearance.
20 Whereof not only the hurt might be able to destroy them, but also the very sight might kill them through fear.	20 However, without these, one breath could have blown them over, pursued by Justice, whirled awayby the breath of your power. You, however, ordered all things by measure, number and weight.
21 Yea and without these, they might have been slain with one blast, persecuted by their own deeds, and scattered by the breath of thy power: but thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight.	21 For your great power is always at your service, and who can withstand the might of your arm?
22 For great power always belonged to thee alone: and who shall resist the strength of thy arm?	22 The whole world, for you, can no more than tip a balance, like a drop of morning dew falling on theground.
23 For the whole world before thee is as the least grain of the balance, and as a drop of the morning dew, that falleth down upon the earth:	23 Yet you are merciful to al , because you are almighty, you overlook people's sins, so that they canrepent.
24 But thou hast mercy upon all, because thou canst do all things, and overlookest the sins of men for the sake of repentance.	24 Yes, you love everything that exists, and nothing that you have made disgusts you, since, if you hadhated something, you would not have made it.
25 For thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made: for thou didst not appoint, or make any thing hating it.	25 And how could a thing subsist, had you not wil ed it? Or how be preserved, if not cal ed forth by you?
26 And how could any thing endure, if thou wouldst not? or be preserved, if not called by thee.	26 No, you spare al , since al is yours, Lord, lover of life!
27 But thou sparest all: because they are thine, O Lord, who lovest souls.