Sefarim
Chokhmat Shelomoh11
Wisdom of Solomon · Chapter 11
She prospered their works in the hand of the holy navi.
They went through the wilderness that was not inhabited, and pitched tents in places where there lay no way.
They stood against their enemies, and were avenged of their adversaries.
When they were thirsty, they called upon thee, and water was given them out of the flinty rock, and their thirst was quenched out of the hard stone.
For by what things their enemies were punished, by the same they in their need were benefited.
For instead of a perpetual running river troubled with foul blood,
For a manifest reproof of that mitsvah, whereby the infants were slain, thou gavest unto them abundance of water by a means which they hoped not for:
Declaring by that thirst then how thou hadst punished their adversaries.
For when they were tried albeit but in mercy chastised, they knew how the ungodly were judged in wrath and tormented, thirsting in another manner than the just.
For these thou didst admonish and try, as a father: but the other, as a severe king, thou didst condemn and punish.
Whether they were absent or present, they were vexed alike.
For a double grief came upon them, and a groaning for the remembrance of things past.
For when they heard by their own punishments the other to be benefited, they had some feeling of the master.
For whom they respected with scorn, when he was long before thrown out at the casting forth of the infants, him in the end, when they saw what came to pass, they admired.
But for the foolish devices of their wickedness, wherewith being deceived they worshipped serpents void of reason, and vile beasts, thou didst send a multitude of unreasonable beasts upon them for vengeance;
That they might know, that wherewithal a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be punished.
For thy Almighty hand, that made the world of matter without form, wanted not means to send among them a multitude of bears or fierce lions,
Or unknown wild beasts, full of rage, newly created, breathing out either a fiery vapour, or filthy scents of scattered smoke, or shooting horrible sparkles out of their eyes:
Whereof not only the harm might dispatch them at once, but also the terrible sight utterly destroy them.
Yea, and without these might they have fallen down with one blast, being persecuted of vengeance, and scattered abroad through the breath of thy power: but thou hast ordered all things in measure and number and weight.
For thou canst shew thy great strength at all times when thou wilt; and who may withstand the power of thine arm?
For the whole world before thee is as a little grain of the balance, yea, as a drop of the morning dew that falleth down upon the earth.
But thou hast mercy upon all; for thou canst do all things, and winkest at the sins of men, because they should amend.
For thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which thou hast made: for never wouldest thou have made any thing, if thou hadst hated it.
And how could any thing have endured, if it had not been thy will? or been preserved, if not called by thee?
But thou sparest all: for they are thine, O master, thou lover of souls.
Sefarim
Chokhmat Shelomoh12
Wisdom of Solomon · Chapter 12
For thine incorruptible Spirit is in all things.
Therefore chastenest thou them by little and little that offend, and warnest them by putting them in remembrance wherein they have offended, that leaving their wickedness they may believe on thee, O master.
For it was thy will to destroy by the hands of our fathers both those old inhabitants of thy holy land,
Whom thou hatedst for doing most odious works of witchcrafts, and wicked sacrifices;
And also those merciless murderers of children, and devourers of man’s flesh, and the feasts of blood,
With their kohanim out of the midst of their idolatrous crew, and the parents, that killed with their own hands souls destitute of help:
That the land, which thou esteemedst above all other, might receive a worthy colony of Elohim’s children.
Nevertheless even those thou sparedst as men, and didst send wasps, forerunners of thine host, to destroy them by little and little.
Not that thou wast unable to bring the ungodly under the hand of the righteous in battle, or to destroy them at once with cruel beasts, or with one rough word:
But executing thy judgments upon them by little and little, thou gavest them place of repentance, not being ignorant that they were a naughty generation, and that their malice was bred in them, and that their cogitation would never be changed.
For it was a cursed seed from the beginning; neither didst thou for fear of any man give them pardon for those things wherein they sinned.
For who shall say, What hast thou done? or who shall withstand thy judgment? or who shall accuse thee for the nations that perish, whom thou made? or who shall come to stand against thee, to be revenged for the unrighteous men?
For neither is there any Elohim but thou that careth for all, to whom thou mightest shew that thy judgment is not unright.
Neither shall king or tyrant be able to set his face against thee for any whom thou hast punished.
Forsomuch then as thou art righteous thyself, thou orderest all things righteously: thinking it not agreeable with thy power to condemn him that hath not deserved to be punished.
For thy power is the beginning of righteousness, and because thou art the master of all, it maketh thee to be gracious unto all.
For when men will not believe that thou art of a full power, thou shewest thy strength, and among them that know it thou makest their boldness manifest.
But thou, mastering thy power, judgest with equity, and orderest us with great favour: for thou mayest use power when thou wilt.
But by such works hast thou taught thy people that the just man should be merciful, and hast made thy children to be of a good hope that thou givest repentance for sins.
For if thou didst punish the enemies of thy children, and the condemned to death, with such deliberation, giving them time and place, whereby they might be delivered from their malice:
With how great circumspection didst thou judge thine own sons, unto whose fathers thou hast sworn, and made covenants of good promises?
Therefore, whereas thou dost chasten us, thou scourgest our enemies a thousand times more, to the intent that, when we judge, we should carefully think of thy goodness, and when we ourselves are judged, we should look for mercy.
Wherefore, whereas men have lived dissolutely and unrighteously, thou hast tormented them with their own abominations.
For they went astray very far in the ways of error, and held them for gods, which even among the beasts of their enemies were despised, being deceived, as children of no understanding.
Therefore unto them, as to children without the use of reason, thou didst send a judgment to mock them.
But they that would not be reformed by that correction, wherein he dallied with them, shall feel a judgment worthy of Elohim.
For, look, for what things they grudged, when they were punished, that is, for them whom they thought to be gods;
now being punished in them, when they saw it, they acknowledged him to be the true Elohim, whom before they denied to know: and therefore came extreme damnation upon them.
Sefarim
Chokhmat Shelomoh13
Wisdom of Solomon · Chapter 13
Surely vain are all men by nature, who are ignorant of Elohim, and could not out of the good things that are seen know him that is: neither by considering the works did they acknowledge the workmaster;
But deemed either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the violent water, or the lights of shamayim, to be the gods which govern the world.
With whose beauty if they being delighted took them to be gods; let them know how much better the master of them is: for the first author of beauty hath created them.
But if they were astonished at their power and virtue, let them understand by them, how much mightier he is that made them.
For by the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably the maker of them is seen.
But yet for this they are the less to be blamed: for they peradventure err, seeking Elohim, and desirous to find him.
For being conversant in his works they search him diligently, and believe their sight: because the things are beautiful that are seen.
Howbeit neither are they to be pardoned.
For if they were able to know so much, that they could aim at the world; how did they not sooner find out the master thereof?
But miserable are they, and in dead things is their hope, who call them gods, which are the works of men’s hands, gold and silver, to shew art in, and resemblances of beasts, or a stone good for nothing, the work of an ancient hand.
Now a carpenter that felleth timber, after he hath sawn down a tree meet for the purpose, and taken off all the bark skilfully round about, and hath wrought it handsomely, and made a vessel thereof fit for the service of man’s life;
And after spending the refuse of his work to dress his meat, hath filled himself;
And taking the very refuse among those which served to no use, being a crooked piece of wood, and full of knots, hath carved it diligently, when he had nothing else to do, and formed it by the skill of his understanding, and fashioned it to the image of a man;
Or made it like some vile beast, laying it over with vermilion, and with paint colouring it red, and covering every spot therein;
And when he had made a convenient room for it, set it in a wall, and made it fast with iron:
For he provided for it that it might not fall, knowing that it was unable to help itself; for it is an image, and hath need of help:
Then maketh he prayer for his goods, for his wife and children, and is not ashamed to speak to that which hath no life.
For health he calleth upon that which is weak: for life prayeth to that which is dead; for aid humbly beseecheth that which hath least means to help: and for a good journey he asketh of that which cannot set a foot forward:
And for gaining and getting, and for good success of his hands, asketh ability to do of him, that is most unable to do any thing.