Wisdom 12

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 For your imperishable spirit is in everything!	1 for your imperishable spirit is in all things!
2 And thus, gradual y, you correct those who offend; you admonish and remind them of how they havesinned, so that they may abstain from evil and trust in you, Lord.	2 Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little, warn them, and remind them of the sins they are committing, that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!
3 The ancient inhabitants of your holy land	3 For truly, the ancient inhabitants of your holy land,
4 you hated for their loathsome practices, their acts of sorcery, and unholy rites.	4 whom you hated for deeds most odious-- Works of witchcraft and impious sacrifices;
5 Those ruthless murderers of children, those eaters of entrails at feasts of human flesh and of blood,those initiates of secret brotherhoods,	5 a cannibal feast of human flesh and of blood, from the midst of. . .-- These merciless murderers of children,
6 those murderous parents of defenceless beings, you determined to destroy at our ancestors' hands,	6 and parents who took with their own hands defenseless lives, You willed to destroy by the hands of our fathers,
7 so that this land, dearer to you than any other, might receive a worthy colony of God's children.	7 that the land that is dearest of all to you might receive a worthy colony of God's children.
8 Even so, since these were human, you treated them leniently, sending hornets as forerunners of yourarmy, to exterminate them little by little.	8 But even these, as they were men, you spared, and sent wasps as forerunners of your army that they might exterminate them by degrees.
9 Not that you were unable to hand the godless over to the upright in pitched battle or destroy them atonce by savage beasts or one harsh word;	9 Not that you were without power to have the wicked vanquished in battle by the just, or wiped out at once by terrible beasts or by one decisive word;
10 but, by carrying out your sentences gradual y, you gave them a chance to repent, although you knewthat they were inherently evil, innately wicked,	10 But condemning them bit by bit, you gave them space for repentance. You were not unaware that their race was wicked and their malice ingrained, And that their dispositions would never change;
11 and fixed in their cast of mind; for they were a race accursed from the beginning. Nor was it from aweof anyone that you let their sins go unpunished.	11 for they were a race accursed from the beginning. Neither out of fear for anyone did you grant amnesty for their sins.
12 For who is there to ask, 'What have you done?' Or who is there to disagree with your sentence? Whoto arraign you for destroying nations which you have created? Who to confront you by championing the wicked?	12 For who can say to you, "What have you done?" or who can oppose your decree? Or when peoples perish, who can challenge you, their maker; or who can come into your presence as vindicator of unjust men?
13 For there is no god, other than you, who cares for every one, to whom you have to prove that yoursentences have been just.	13 For neither is there any god besides you who have the care of all, that you need show you have not unjustly condemned;
14 No more could any king or despot chal enge you over those whom you have punished.	14 Nor can any king or prince confront you on behalf of those you have punished.
15 For, being upright yourself, you rule the universe uprightly, and hold it as incompatible with yourpower to condemn anyone who has not deserved to be punished.	15 But as you are just, you govern all things justly; you regard it as unworthy of your power to punish one who has incurred no blame.
16 For your strength is the basis of your saving justice, and your sovereignty over al makes you lenientto al .	16 For your might is the source of justice; your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all.
17 You show your strength when people will not believe in your absolute power, and you confound anyinsolence in those who do know it.	17 For you show your might when the perfection of your power is disbelieved; and in those who know you, you rebuke temerity.
18 But you, control ing your strength, are mild in judgement, and govern us with great lenience, for youhave only to wil , and your power is there.	18 But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us; for power, whenever you will, attends you.
19 By acting thus, you have taught your people that the upright must be kindly to his fel ows, and youhave given your children the good hope that after sins you wil grant repentance.	19 And you taught your people, by these deeds, that those who are just must be kind; And you gave your sons good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.
20 For, if with such care and indulgence you have punished your children's enemies, though doomed todeath, and have given them time and place to be rid of their wickedness,	20 For these were enemies of your servants, doomed to death; yet, while you punished them with such solicitude and pleading, granting time and opportunity to abandon wickedness,
21 with what exact attention have you not judged your children, to whose ancestors, by oaths andcovenants, you made such generous promises?	21 With what exactitude you judged your sons, to whose fathers you gave the sworn covenants of goodly promises!
22 Thus, you instruct us, when you punish our enemies in moderation, that we should reflect on yourkindness when we judge, and, when we are judged, we should look for mercy.	22 Us, therefore, you chastise and our enemies with a thousand blows you punish, that we may think earnestly of your goodness when we judge, and, when being judged, may look for mercy.
23 And this is why people leading foolish and wicked lives were tortured by you with their ownabominations;	23 Hence those unjust also, who lived a life of folly, you tormented through their own abominations.
24 for they had strayed too far on the paths of error by taking the vilest and most despicable of animalsfor gods, being deluded like sil y little children.	24 For they went far astray in the paths of error, taking for gods the worthless and disgusting among beasts, deceived like senseless infants.
25 So, as to children with no sense, you gave them a sentence making fools of them.	25 Therefore as though upon unreasoning children, you sent your judgment on them as a mockery;
26 Those, however, who would not take warning from a mocking reproof were soon to endure asentence worthy of God.	26 But they who took no heed of punishment which was but child's play were to experience a condemnation worthy of God.
27 The creatures that made them suffer and against which they protested, those very creatures that theyhad taken for gods and by which they were punished they saw in their true light; and he whom hitherto they hadrefused to know, they realised was true God. And this is why the final condemnation fell on them.	27 For in the things through which they suffered distress, since they were tortured by the very things they deemed gods, They saw and recognized the true God whom before they had refused to know; with this, their final condemnation came upon them.