Wisdom 12

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 For your imperishable spirit is in everything!	1 O how good and gracious, Lord, is your spirit 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, those who wander afield, you correct, and, as to those who sin, you counsel them and admonish them, so that, having abandoned malice, they may believe in you, O Lord.
3 The ancient inhabitants of your holy land	3 For those ancient inhabitants of your holy land, who you abhorred,
4 you hated for their loathsome practices, their acts of sorcery, and unholy rites.	4 because they were doing works hateful to you, through unjust medicines and 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 and the merciless murderers of their own sons, and the eaters of human entrails, and the devourers of blood apart from your community sacrament,
6 those murderous parents of defenceless beings, you determined to destroy at our ancestors' hands,	6 and the sellers performing the ceremonies of helpless souls, you willed to destroy by the hands of our parents,
7 so that this land, dearer to you than any other, might receive a worthy colony of God's children.	7 so that they might worthily secure the sojourn of the children of God, in the land which is most beloved by you.
8 Even so, since these were human, you treated them leniently, sending hornets as forerunners of yourarmy, to exterminate them little by little.	8 Yet, so that you were lenient even to these men, you sent wasps, forerunners of your army, so that you might destroy them little by little,
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 because you were unable to subdue the impious under the just by war or by cruel beasts, or with a harsh word to exterminate them at once,
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, in judging by degrees, you were giving them a place of repentance, not unaware that their nation is wicked, and their malice is inherent, and that their thinking could never be changed.
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 this offspring was accursed from the beginning. Neither did you, fearing anyone, give favor to 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 will say to you, “What have you done?” Or who will stand against your judgment? Or who will come before you as a defender of unfair men? Or who will accuse you, if the nations perish, which you have made?
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 other God but you, who has care of all, to whom you would show that you did not give judgment unjustly.
14 No more could any king or despot chal enge you over those whom you have punished.	14 Neither will king or tyrant inquire before you about those whom you destroyed.
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 Therefore, since you are just, you order all things justly, considering it foreign to your virtue to condemn him who does not deserve to be punished.
16 For your strength is the basis of your saving justice, and your sovereignty over al makes you lenientto al .	16 For your power is the beginning of justice, and, because you are Lord of all, you make yourself to be 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 reveal power to those who do not believe you to be perfect in power, and you expose the arrogance of those who do not know you.
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 Yet, you are the master of power, since you judge with tranquility, and since you administer us with great reverence; for it is close to you to be used whenever you will.
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 But you have taught your people, through such works, that they must be just and humane, and you have made your sons to be of good hope, because in judging you provide a place for repentance from 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 even if the enemies of your servants were deserving of death, you afflicted them with great attentiveness, providing a time and a place whereby they would be able to be changed from malice;
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 diligence, then, have you judged your sons, whose parents you have given oaths and covenants in good faith!
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 Therefore, while you give us discipline, you give our enemies a multiplicity of scourges, so that in judging we may think on your goodness, and when we are judged, we may hope for mercy.
23 And this is why people leading foolish and wicked lives were tortured by you with their ownabominations;	23 Therefore, also to these, who have lived their lived their life irrationally and unjustly, through these things that they worshiped, you gave the greatest torments.
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 And, indeed, they wandered for a long time in the way of error, valuing those things as gods, which are worthless even among animals, living in foolish irrational behavior.
25 So, as to children with no sense, you gave them a sentence making fools of them.	25 Because of this, you have given a judgment in derision, as if from foolish children.
26 Those, however, who would not take warning from a mocking reproof were soon to endure asentence worthy of God.	26 But those who have not been corrected by mockery and chiding, have experienced a judgment 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 among those who were indignant at their sufferings, which came through those things that they reputed to be gods, when they saw that they would be destroyed by these same things, those who formerly refused knowledge of him, now acknowledged the true God, and, because of this, the end of their condemnation came upon them.