a continually smoking wasteland,
plants bearing fruit that does not ripen,
and a pillar of salt standing as a monument to an unbelieving soul.
8For because they passed wisdom by,
they not only were hindered from recognizing the good,
but also left for humankind a reminder of their folly,
so that their failures could never go unnoticed.
9Wisdom rescued from troubles those who served her.
10When a righteous man fled from his brother’s wrath,
she guided him on straight paths;
she showed him the kingdom of God,
and gave him knowledge of holy things;
she prospered him in his labors,
and increased the fruit of his toil.
11When his oppressors were covetous,
she stood by him and made him rich.
12She protected him from his enemies,
and kept him safe from those who lay in wait for him;
in his arduous contest she gave him the victory,
so that he might learn that godliness is more powerful than anything else.
13When a righteous man was sold, wisdome did not desert him,
but delivered him from sin.
She descended with him into the dungeon,
14and when he was in prison she did not leave him,
until she brought him the scepter of a kingdom
and authority over his masters.
Those who accused him she showed to be false,
and she gave him everlasting honor.
Wisdom Led the Israelites out of Egypt
15A holy people and blameless race wisdom delivered from a nation of oppressors.
16She entered the soul of a servant of the Lord,
and withstood dread kings with wonders and signs.
17She gave to holy people the reward of their labors;
she guided them along a marvelous way,
and became a shelter to them by day,
and a starry flame through the night.
18She brought them over the Red Sea,
and led them through deep waters;
19but she drowned their enemies,
and cast them up from the depth of the sea.
20Therefore the righteous plundered the ungodly;
they sang hymns, O Lord, to your holy name,
and praised with one accord your defending hand;
21for wisdom opened the mouths of those who were mute,
and made the tongues of infants speak clearly.
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a Gk She
b Gk She
c Gk She
d Or on Pentapolis
e Gk she
10.1–21 Wisdom’s saving and punishing power is illustrated by the enumeration of seven righteous heroes and their wicked counterparts. Events in Genesis and Exodus are reinterpreted as the providential ordering of Israel’s history through wisdom’s continuous election of righteous servants. Because he mentions no names, the author emphasizes the exemplary nature of the stories. His ode to wisdom is constructed by the use of anaphora, repetition of the same word at the beginning of successive verses. He thus introduces wisdom throughout the chapter with the emphatic Greek pronoun haute (“she”), which marks off six sections each of which contains the word righteous once (vv. 1–4, 5, 6–8, 9–12, 13–14, 15–21). See the similar use of anaphora in Acts 7.35–38; Cicero’s hymn to philosophy in Tusculan Disputations 5.5; Seneca, To Marcia 20.2; and the Hellenistic aretalogies, or hymns of praise, discovered in Egypt.
10.1 Father of the world, Adam. See Gen 2–3.
10.3 An unrighteous man, Cain. Killed his brother. Philo thrice applies the adjective “fratricidal” to Cain. See Gen 4.3–16.
10.4 Because of him. As the first murderer Cain serves as a paradigm of wickedness, so that the cause of the flood can be ascribed to him. The verb translated steering here is also employed by Stoics to describe the guiding power of reason. According to the midrash Genesis Rabbah 34.8, the stars did not function during the flood, implying that Noah’s ark was piloted by God. The righteous man, here Noah. See Gen 6.9–8.22.
10.5 The righteous man, Abraham. According to Genesis Rabbah 38.6, Abraham was a contemporary of the generation of the Tower of Babel. See Gen 11.1–9. His child, Isaac. See Gen 22.1–19.
10.6 A righteous man, Lot. See Gen 19.1–29.
10.7 Evidence…still remains. See Gen 19.26, 28. Both Philo and Josephus speak of vestiges of the divine fire as still visible. Fruit that does not ripen. See Josephus, War 4.484; Tacitus, Histories 5.7. A pillar of salt. Josephus writes: “I have seen this pillar of salt which remains to this day” (Antiquities 1.203–4). The erosion of the salt mountain along the south end of the Dead Sea has caused pinnacles to stand out, which many writers have likened to Lot’s wife.
10.10 A righteous man, Jacob. See Gen 27.41–45. Showed him…holy things, Jacob’s dream at Bethel (Gen 28.10–17).
10.12 Arduous contest, a reference to Jacob’s struggle with the angel (Gen 32.25–33). So that he might learn. Jacob’s struggle is given a symbolic meaning.
10.13 A righteous man, Joseph. See Gen 37; 39–50.
10.15–21 A reinterpretation of Ex 1–15 emphasizing the role of wisdom.
10.16 Servant of the Lord, Moses (see Isa 63.11–14).
10.17 The reward of their labors, the objects of silver and gold “borrowed” by the Israelites from the Egyptians before leaving Egypt (Ex 11.2; 12.35–36; cf. Ps 105.37; Jubilees 48.18; Ezekiel the Tragedian, Exagoge 165; Philo, Life of Moses 1.140–42). Shelter, starry flame. The pillar of cloud and of fire (Ex 13.21–22) is allegorized as wisdom.
10.20 Plundered the ungodly. Demetrius, the earliest known Greco-Jewish writer, had already attempted to answer the question raised as to how the Israelites, who left Egypt unarmed, managed to obtain arms (cf. Josephus, Antiquities 2.349). With one accord. Cf. 2 Enoch 19.6; Ascension of Isaiah 7.15; Testament of Solomon 18.2; Song of Songs Rabbah 8.15.
10.21 Tongues of infants alludes to an early Jewish tradition that even the infants sang God’s praises (Tosefta Sota 6.4).
WISDOM OF SOLOMON 11
Wisdom Led the Israelites through the Desert
1Wisdoma prospered their works by the hand of a holy prophet.
2They journeyed through an uninhabited wilderness,
and pitched their tents in untrodden places.
3They withstood their enemies and fought off their foes.
4When they were thirsty, they called upon you,
and water was given them out of flinty rock,
and from hard stone a remedy for their thirst.
5For through the very things by which their enemies were punished,
they themselves received benefit in their need.
6Instead of the fountain of an ever-flowing river,
stirred up and defiled with blood
7in rebuke for the decree to kill the infants,
you gave them abundant water unexpectedly,
8showing by their thirst at that
time how you punished their enemies.
9For when they were tried, though they were being disciplined in mercy,
they learned how the ungodly were tormented when judged in wrath.
10For you tested them as a parentb does in warning,
but you examined the ungodlyc as a stern king does in condemnation.
11Whether absent or present, they were equally distressed,
12for a twofold grief possessed them,
and a groaning at the memory of what had occurred.
13For when they heard that through their own punishments
the righteousd had received benefit, they perceived it was the Lord’s doing.
14For though they had mockingly rejected him who long before had been cast out and exposed,
at the end of the events they marveled at him,
when they felt thirst in a different way from the rig
hteous.
Punishment of the Wicked
15In return for their foolish and wicked thoughts,
which led them astray to worship irrational serpents and worthless animals,
you sent upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them,
16so that they might learn that one is punished by the very things by which one sins.
17For your all-powerful hand,
which created the world out of formless matter,
did not lack the means to send upon them a multitude of bears, or bold lions,
18or newly-created unknown beasts full of rage,
or such as breathe out fiery breath,
or belch forth a thick pall of smoke,
or flash terrible sparks from their eyes;
19not only could the harm they did destroy people,e
but the mere sight of them could kill by fright.
20Even apart from these, peoplef could fall at a single breath
when pursued by justice and scattered by the breath of your power.
But you have arranged all things by measure and number and weight.
God Is Powerful and Merciful
21For it is always in your power to show great strength,
and who can withstand the might of your arm?
22Because the whole world before you is like a speck that tips the scales,
and like a drop of morning dew that falls on the ground.
23But you are merciful to all, for you can do all things,
and you overlook people’s sins, so that they may repent.
24For you love all things that exist,
and detest none of the things that you have made,
for you would not have made anything if you had hated it.
25How would anything have endured if you had not willed it?
Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved?
26You spare all things, for they are yours,
O Lord, you who love the living.
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a Gk She
b Gk a father
c Gk those
d Gk they
e Gk them
f Gk they
11.1–19.22 After an introduction (11.1–5), the third part of the book (see Introduction) is an elaborate synkrisis, or comparison, in which the author employs seven antitheses (11.6–14; 11.15–16.4; 16.5–14; 16.15–29; 17.1–18.4; 18.5–25; 19.1–9) to illustrate his theme that Egypt was punished measure for measure and Israel was benefited by the very things with which Egypt was punished. Already in the biblical account, the contrast between the fate of the Egyptians and the Israelites is clearly spelled out in five of the ten plagues. In general this part addresses God in the second-person singular. Because the author uses no proper names, the narrative has a typical or exemplary quality to it.
11.1–5 A brief narrative of the successful advance of the Israelites through the desert followed by a statement of the theme of the comparison (the Israelites are benefited by the very things that punish the Egyptians).
11.1 Better, “Their works prospered by the hand of a holy prophet.” Wisdom does not play an important role in this part of the book.
11.6–14 The first antithesis (see note on 11.1–19.22): the Nile water changed to blood, but the Israelites obtained water from a desert rock. See Ex 1.15–16; 7.7–24; 17.1–7; Num 20.2–13.
11.6 An ever-flowing river, the Nile.
11.7 In rebuke. The same notion appears in Pirke Rabbi Eliezer 19, where it is stated that God plagued the waters of the Nile because the Egyptians had cast the children of the Israelites into it.
11.8 The author here enunciates a principle that recurs in 16.4, that it was pedagogically necessary that the Israelites have a taste of their enemies’ punishments.
11.9 Tried. See Deut 8.2–5.
11.11 The Egyptians suffered both when the Israelites were present with them in Egypt (they were afflicted by the plagues) and when the Israelites were absent from them in the wilderness (they were overwhelmed in the sea).
11.12 They were pained twofold, both at their own calamity and by the fact that it brought deliverance to the Israelites.
11.15–16.4 The second antithesis (see note on 11.1–19.22): the Egyptians hunger through animal plagues, but Israel enjoys exotic quail food. See Ex 8.1–19; 9.1–7; Num 11. This section is interrupted by two excursuses (11.17–12.22; 13.1–15.19).
11.15–16 A restatement of 11.5 referring to the role of irrational animals.
11.15 Irrational serpents and worthless animals. Cf. Letter of Aristeas 138; Philo, On the Decalogue 76–80. Roman ridicule of Egyptian animal worship is best illustrated by Octavian’s remark when he was asked if he would like to visit the Apis bull: “My custom is to worship gods, not cattle” (Dio Cassius, Roman History 51.16.5).
11.16 The law of retaliation occurs three times in the Pentateuch (Ex 21.23–25; Lev 24.18–20; Deut 19.21) and appears frequently in the Pseudepigrapha. The rabbis were equally fond of elaborating this principle (Tosefta Sota 3–4).
11.17–12.22 The first excursus (see note on 11.15–16.4) deals with the nature and purpose of divine mercy. The Egyptians could have been smashed with one blow, but God never acts arbitrarily. His omnipotence guarantees his all-embracing love, and his very act of creation is a manifestation of this love, precluding the possibility of hatred toward any of his creatures. This section includes an attempt to justify the Israelite conquest of Canaan (12.3–18).
11.17 The doctrine is Platonic, but for the terminology of formless matter, see Aristotle, Physics 191a10; Posidonius Fragment 92. Philo raises the same question as this author about whether God lacks the means to create, and his first answer is similar to that given in v. 23 (Life of Moses 1.109–12).
11.20 By measure and number and weight. God’s actions always follow the mathematical laws by which he governs the entire cosmos. Disproportionate punishments such as those described in vv. 17–19 are therefore ruled out. Cf. Job 28.25; Isa 40.12; 2 Esd 4.36–37; Testament of Naphtali 2.3. Philo placed special emphasis on this notion (On Dreams 2.193; cf. Plato, Laws 575B).
11.22 Cf. Isa 40.15.
11.24 Detest none…that you have made. Cf. Sir 15.11. This view is in sharp contrast with that of the Dead Sea sect.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON 12
1For your immortal spirit is in all things.
2Therefore you correct little by little those who trespass,
and you remind and warn them of the things through which they sin,
so that they may be freed from wickedness and put their trust in you, O Lord.
The Sins of the Canaanites
3Those who lived long ago in your holy land
4you hated for their detestable practices,
their works of sorcery and unholy rites,
5their merciless slaughtera of children,
and their sacrificial feasting on human flesh and blood.
These initiates from the midst of a heathen cult,b
6these parents who murder helpless lives,
you willed to destroy by the hands of our ancestors,
7so that the land most precious of all to you might receive a worthy colony of the servantsc of God.
8But even these you spared, since they were but mortals,
and sent waspsd as forerunners of your army
to destroy them little by little,
9though you were not unable to give the ungodly into the hands of the righteous in battle,
or to destroy them at one blow by dread wild animals or your stern word.
10But judging them little by little you gave them an opportunity to repent,
though you were not unaware that their origine was evil and their wickedness inborn,
and that their way of thinking would never change.
11For they were an accursed race from the beginning,
and it was not through fear of anyone that you left them unpunished for their sins.
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God Is Sovereign
12For who will say, “What have you done?”
or will resist your judgment?
Who will accuse you for the destruction of nations that you made?
Or who will come before you to plead as an advocate for the unrighteous?
13For neither is there any god besides you, whose care is for all people,f
to whom you should prove that you have not judged unjustly;
14nor can any king or monarch confront you about those whom you have punished.
15You are righteous and you rule all things righteously,
deeming it alien to your power to condemn anyone who does not deserve to be punished.
16For your strength is the source of righteousness,
and your sovereignty over all causes you to spare all.
17For you show your strength when people doubt the completeness of your power,
and you rebuke any insolence among those who know it.g
18Although you are sovereign in strength, you judge with mildness,
and with great forbearance you govern us;
for you have power to act whenever you choose.
God’s Lessons for Israel
19Through such works you have taught your people that the righteous must be kind,
and you have filled your children with good hope,
because you give repentance for sins.
20For if you punished with such great care and indulgenceh
the enemies of your servantsi and those deserving of death,
granting them time and opportunity to give up their wickedness,
21with what strictness you have judged your children,
to whose ancestors you gave oaths and covenants full of good promises!
22So while chastening us you scourge our enemies ten thousand times more,
so that, when we judge, we may meditate upon your goodness,
and when we are judged, we may expect mercy.
The Punishment of the Egyptians
23Therefore those who lived unrighteously, in a life of folly,
you tormented through their own abominations.
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