Wisdom 11

KING JAMES BIBLE	NEW JERUSALEM
1 She prospered their works in the hand of the holy prophet.	1 She made their actions successful, by means of a holy prophet.
2 They went through the wilderness that was not inhabited, and pitched tents in places where there lay no way.	2 They journeyed through an unpeopled desert and pitched their tents in inaccessible places.
3 They stood against their enemies, and were avenged of their adversaries.	3 They stood firm against their enemies, fought off their foes.
4 When they were thirsty, they called upon thee, and water was given them out of the flinty rock, and their thirst was quenched 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, by the same they in their need were benefited.	5 Thus, what had served to punish their enemies became a benefit for them in their difficulties.
6 For instead of of a perpetual running river troubled with foul blood,	6 Whereas their enemies had only the ever-flowing source of a river fouled with mingled blood and mud,
7 For a manifest reproof of that commandment, whereby the infants were slain, thou gavest unto them abundance of water by a means which they hoped not for:	7 to punish them for their decree of infanticide, you gave your people, against al hope, water inabundance,
8 Declaring by that thirst then how thou hadst punished their adversaries.	8 once you had shown by the thirst that they were experiencing how severely you were punishing theirenemies.
9 For when they were tried albeit but in mercy chastised, they knew how the ungodly were judged in wrath and tormented, thirsting in another manner than the just.	9 From their own ordeals, which were only loving correction, they realised how an angry sentence wastormenting the godless;
10 For these thou didst admonish and try, as a father: but the other, as a severe king, thou didst condemn and punish.	10 for you had tested your own as a father admonishes, but the others you had punished as a pitilessking condemns,
11 Whether they were absent or present, they were vexed alike.	11 and, whether far or near, they were equal y afflicted.
12 For a double grief came upon them, and a groaning for the remembrance of things past.	12 For a double sorrow seized on them, and a groaning at the memory of the past;
13 For when they heard by their own punishments the other to be benefited, they had some feeling of the Lord.	13 when they learned that the punishments they were receiving were beneficial to the others, theyrealised it was the Lord,
14 For whom they respected with scorn, when he was long before thrown out at the casting forth of the infants, him in the end, when they saw what came to pass, they admired.	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 But for the foolish devices of their wickedness, wherewith being deceived they worshipped serpents void of reason, and vile beasts, thou didst send a multitude of unreasonable beasts upon them for vengeance;	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 That they might know, that wherewithal a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be punished.	16 and to teach them that the agent of sin is the agent of punishment.
17 For thy Almighty hand, that made the world of matter without form, wanted not means to send among them a multitude of bears or fierce lions,	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 Or unknown wild beasts, full of rage, newly created, breathing out either a fiery vapour, or filthy scents of scattered smoke, or shooting horrible sparkles out of their eyes:	18 or unknown beasts, newly created, ful of rage, breathing out fire, or puffing out stinking smoke, orflashing fearful sparks from their eyes,
19 Whereof not only the harm might dispatch them at once, but also the terrible sight utterly destroy them.	19 beasts able not only to destroy them, being so savage, but even to strike them dead by their terrifyingappearance.
20 Yea, and without these might they have fallen down with one blast, being persecuted of vengeance, and scattered abroad through the breath of thy power: but thou hast ordered all things in measure and number and weight.	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 For thou canst shew thy great strength at all times when thou wilt; and who may withstand the power of thine arm?	21 For your great power is always at your service, and who can withstand the might of your arm?
22 For the whole world before thee is as a little grain of the balance, yea, as a drop of the morning dew that falleth down upon the earth.	22 The whole world, for you, can no more than tip a balance, like a drop of morning dew falling on theground.
23 But thou hast mercy upon all; for thou canst do all things, and winkest at the sins of men, because they should amend.	23 Yet you are merciful to al , because you are almighty, you overlook people's sins, so that they canrepent.
24 For thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which thou hast made: for never wouldest thou have made any thing, if thou hadst hated it.	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 And how could any thing have endured, if it had not been thy will? or been preserved, if not called by thee?	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 But thou sparest all: for they are thine, O Lord, thou lover of souls.	26 No, you spare al , since al is yours, Lord, lover of life!