Wisdom 12

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 for your imperishable spirit is in all things!	1 O how good and gracious, Lord, is your spirit in all things!
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!	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 For truly, the ancient inhabitants of your holy land,	3 For those ancient inhabitants of your holy land, who you abhorred,
4 whom you hated for deeds most odious-- Works of witchcraft and impious sacrifices;	4 because they were doing works hateful to you, through unjust medicines and sacrifices,
5 a cannibal feast of human flesh and of blood, from the midst of. . .-- These merciless murderers of children,	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 and parents who took with their own hands defenseless lives, You willed to destroy by the hands of our fathers,	6 and the sellers performing the ceremonies of helpless souls, you willed to destroy by the hands of our parents,
7 that the land that is dearest of all to you 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 But even these, as they were men, you spared, and sent wasps as forerunners of your army that they might exterminate them by degrees.	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 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;	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 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;	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 for they were a race accursed from the beginning. Neither out of fear for anyone did you grant amnesty for their sins.	11 For this offspring was accursed from the beginning. Neither did you, fearing anyone, give favor to their sins.
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?	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 neither is there any god besides you who have the care of all, that you need show you have not unjustly condemned;	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 Nor can any king or prince confront you on behalf of those you have punished.	14 Neither will king or tyrant inquire before you about those whom you destroyed.
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.	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 might is the source of justice; your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all.	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 For you show your might when the perfection of your power is disbelieved; and in those who know you, you rebuke temerity.	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 though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us; for power, whenever you will, attends you.	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 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.	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 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,	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 exactitude you judged your sons, to whose fathers you gave the sworn covenants of goodly promises!	21 with what diligence, then, have you judged your sons, whose parents you have given oaths and covenants in good faith!
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.	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 Hence those unjust also, who lived a life of folly, you tormented through their own abominations.	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 went far astray in the paths of error, taking for gods the worthless and disgusting among beasts, deceived like senseless infants.	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 Therefore as though upon unreasoning children, you sent your judgment on them as a mockery;	25 Because of this, you have given a judgment in derision, as if from foolish children.
26 But they who took no heed of punishment which was but child's play were to experience a condemnation worthy of God.	26 But those who have not been corrected by mockery and chiding, have experienced a judgment worthy of God.
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.	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.