Wisdom 11

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 She made their actions successful, by means of a holy prophet.	1 She made their affairs prosper through the holy prophet.
2 They journeyed through an unpeopled desert and pitched their tents in inaccessible places.	2 They journeyed through the uninhabited desert, and in solitudes they pitched their tents;
3 They stood firm against their enemies, fought off their foes.	3 they withstood enemies and took vengeance on their foes.
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.	4 When they thirsted, they called upon you, and water was given them from the sheer rock, assuagement for their thirst from the hard stone.
5 Thus, what had served to punish their enemies became a benefit for them in their difficulties.	5 For by the things through which their foes were punished 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,	6 Instead of a spring, when the perennial river was troubled with impure blood
7 to punish them for their decree of infanticide, you gave your people, against al hope, water inabundance,	7 as a rebuke to the decree for the slaying of infants, You gave them abundant water in an unhoped-for way,
8 once you had shown by the thirst that they were experiencing how severely you were punishing theirenemies.	8 once you had shown by the thirst they then had how you punished their adversaries.
9 From their own ordeals, which were only loving correction, they realised how an angry sentence wastormenting the godless;	9 For when they had been tried, though only mildly chastised, they recognized how the wicked, condemned in anger, were being tormented.
10 for you had tested your own as a father admonishes, but the others you had punished as a pitilessking condemns,	10 the latter you tested, admonishing them as a father; the former as a stern king you probed and condemned.
11 and, whether far or near, they were equal y afflicted.	11 Both those afar off and those close by were afflicted:
12 For a double sorrow seized on them, and a groaning at the memory of the past;	12 For a twofold grief took hold of them and a groaning at the remembrance of the ones who had departed.
13 when they learned that the punishments they were receiving were beneficial to the others, theyrealised it was the Lord,	13 For when they heard that the cause of their own torments was a benefit to these others, they recognized the Lord.
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.	14 Him who of old had been cast out in exposure they indeed mockingly rejected; but in the end of events, they marveled at him, since their thirst proved unlike 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	15 And in return for their senseless, wicked thoughts, which misled them into worshiping dumb serpents and worthless insects, You sent upon them swarms of dumb creatures for vengeance;
16 and to teach them that the agent of sin is the agent of punishment.	16 that they might recognize that a man is punished by the very things through which he sins.
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	17 For not without means was your almighty hand, that had fashioned the universe from formless matter, to send upon them a drove 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,	18 Or new-created, wrathful, unknown beasts to breathe forth fiery breath, Or pour out roaring smoke, or flash terrible sparks from their eyes.
19 beasts able not only to destroy them, being so savage, but even to strike them dead by their terrifyingappearance.	19 Not only could these attack and completely destroy them; even their frightful appearance itself could slay.
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.	20 Even without these, they could have been killed at a single blast, pursued by retribution and winnowed out by your mighty spirit; But you have disposed all things by measure and number and weight.
21 For your great power is always at your service, and who can withstand the might of your arm?	21 For with you great strength abides always; who can resist the might of your arm?
22 The whole world, for you, can no more than tip a balance, like a drop of morning dew falling on theground.	22 Indeed, before you the whole universe is as a grain from a balance, or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.
23 Yet you are merciful to al , because you are almighty, you overlook people's sins, so that they canrepent.	23 But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook the sins of men that they may repent.
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.	24 For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.
25 And how could a thing subsist, had you not wil ed it? Or how be preserved, if not cal ed forth by you?	25 And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?
26 No, you spare al , since al is yours, Lord, lover of life!	26 But you spare all things, because they are yours, O LORD and lover of souls,