Wisdom 19

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 But the wicked, merciless wrath assailed until the end. For he knew beforehand what they were yet to do:	1 But as to the wicked, even to the end there came upon them wrath without mercy. For he knew before also what they would do:
2 That though they themselves had agreed to the departure and had anxiously sent them on their way, they would regret it and pursue them.	2 For when they had given them leave to depart, and had sent them away with great care, they repented, and pursued after them.
3 For while they were still engaged in funeral rites and were mourning at the burials of the dead, They adopted another senseless plan; and those whom they had sent away with entreaty, they pursued as fugitives.	3 For whilst they were yet mourning, and lamenting at the graves of the dead, they took up another foolish device: and pursued them as fugitives whom they had pressed to be gone:
4 For a compulsion suited to this ending drew them on, and made them forgetful of what had befallen them, That they might fill out the torments of their punishment,	4 For a necessity, of which they were worthy, brought them to this end: and they lost the remembrance of those things which had happened, that their punishment might fill up what was wanting to their torments:
5 and your people might experience a glorious journey while those others met an extraordinary death.	5 And that thy people might wonderfully pass through, but they might find a new death.
6 For all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew, serving its natural laws, that your children might be preserved unharmed.	6 For every creature according to its kind was fashioned again as from the beginning, obeying thy commandments, that thy children might be kept without hurt.
7 The cloud overshadowed their camp; and out of what had before been water, dry land was seen emerging: Out of the Red Sea an unimpeded road, and a grassy plain out of the mighty flood.	7 For a cloud overshadowed their camp, and where water was before, dry land appeared, and in the Red Sea a way without hinderance, and out of the great deep a springing field:
8 Over this crossed the whole nation sheltered by your hand, after they beheld stupendous wonders.	8 Through which all the nation passed which was protected with thy hand, seeing thy miracles and wonders.
9 For they ranged about like horses, and bounded about like lambs, praising you, O LORD! their deliverer.	9 For they fed on their food like horses, and they skipped like lambs, praising thee, O Lord, who hadst delivered them.
10 For they were still mindful of what had happened in their sojourn: how instead of the young of animals the land brought forth gnats, and instead of fishes the river swarmed with countless frogs.	10 For they were yet mindful of those things which had been done in the time of their sojourning, how the ground brought forth flies instead of cattle, and how the river cast up a multitude of frogs instead of fishes.
11 And later they saw also a new kind of bird when, prompted by desire, they asked for pleasant foods;	11 And at length they saw a new generation of birds, when being led by their appetite they asked for delicate meats.
12 For to appease them quail came to them from the sea.	12 For to satisfy their desire, the quail came up to them from the sea: and punishments came upon the sinners, not without foregoing signs by the force of thunders: for they suffered justly according to their own wickedness.
13 And the punishments came upon the sinners only after forewarnings from the violence of the thunderbolts. For they justly suffered for their own misdeeds, since indeed they treated their guests with the more grievous hatred.	13 For they exercised a more detestable inhospitality than any: others indeed received not strangers unknown to them, but these brought their guests into bondage that had deserved well of them.
14 For those others did not receive unfamiliar visitors, but these were enslaving beneficent guests.	14 And not only so, but in another respect also they were worse: for the others against their will received the strangers.
15 And not that only; but what punishment was to be theirs since they received strangers unwillingly!	15 But these grievously afflicted them whom they had received with joy, and who lived under the same laws.
16 Yet these, after welcoming them with festivities, oppressed with awful toils those who now shared with them the same rights.	16 But they were struck with blindness: as those others were at the doors of the just man, when they were covered with sudden darkness, and every one sought the passage of his own door.
17 And they were struck with blindness, as those others had been at the portals of the just- When, surrounded by yawning darkness, each sought the entrance of his own gate.	17 For while the elements are changed in themselves, as in an instrument the sound of the quality is changed, yet all keep their sound: which may clearly be perceived by the very sight.
18 For the elements, in variable harmony among themselves, like strings of the harp, produce new melody, while the flow of music steadily persists. And this can be perceived exactly from a review of what took place.	18 For the things of the land were turned into things of the water: and the things before swam in the water passed upon the land.
19 For land creatures were changed into water creatures, and those that swam went over on to the land.	19 The fire had power in water above its own virtue, and the water forgot its quenching nature.
20 Fire in water maintained its own strength, and water forgot its quenching nature;	20 On the other side, the flames wasted not the flesh of corruptible animals walking therein, neither did they melt that good food, which was apt to melt as ice. For in all things thou didst magnify thy people, O Lord, and didst honour them, and didst not despise them, but didst assist them at all times, and in every place.
21 Flames, by contrast, neither consumed the flesh of the perishable animals that went about in them, nor melted the icelike, quick-melting kind of ambrosial food.
22 For every way, O LORD! you magnified and glorified your people; unfailing, you stood by them in every time and circumstance.