King James Version · Under the Greeks
Wisdom of Solomon 11
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is.
1She prospered their works in the hand of the . 2They went through that was not inhabited, and pitched tents in places where there lay no way. 3They stood against their , and were of their . 4When they were thirsty, they called upon thee, and water was given them out of the flinty , and their thirst was quenched out of the hard stone. 5For by what things their were punished, by the same they in their need were benefited. 6For instead of a perpetual running river troubled with foul , 7For a manifest of that , whereby the infants were slain, thou gavest unto them abundance of water by a means which they not for: 8Declaring by that thirst then how thou hadst punished their . 9For when they were tried albeit but in mercy chastised, they knew how the ungodly were judged in and tormented, thirsting in another manner than the . 10For these thou didst admonish and try, as a : but the other, as a severe king, thou didst condemn and punish. 11Whether they were absent or present, they were vexed alike. 12For a double grief came upon them, and a groaning for the remembrance of things past. 13For when they heard by their own punishments the other to be benefited, they had some feeling of . 14For 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. 15But for the foolish devices of their wickedness, wherewith being deceived they void of reason, and vile , thou didst send a multitude of unreasonable upon them for ; 16That they might know, that wherewithal a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be punished. 17For 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, 18Or unknown wild , full of rage, newly created, breathing out either a vapour, or filthy scents of scattered smoke, or shooting horrible sparkles out of their eyes: 19Whereof not only the harm might dispatch them at once, but also the terrible sight them. 20Yea, and without these might they have fallen down with one blast, being persecuted of , and scattered abroad through the breath of thy : but thou hast ordered all things in measure and number and weight. 21For thou canst shew thy great strength at all times when thou wilt; and who may withstand the of thine arm? 22For the whole world before thee is as a little grain of the balance, yea, as a drop of the morning that falleth down upon the earth. 23But thou hast mercy upon all; for thou canst do all things, and winkest at the of men, because they should amend. 24For 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. 25And how could any thing have , if it had not been thy will? or been preserved, if not called by thee? 26But thou sparest all: for they are thine, O , thou lover of .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under the Greeks, 332 BC to 63 BC ›
Alexander's conquest and the kingdoms of his successors. Greek language and custom press in everywhere, and the crisis under Antiochus IV provokes the Maccabean revolt.
- The successors
- Alexander dies at thirty-two and his generals carve up the empire. Judea sits on the border between the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria, and is fought over by both for a century and a half, which is the ordinary condition of the corridor.
- Hellenism
- Not just conquest but a culture: the gymnasium, the theatre, Greek names, Greek dress, Greek as the language of anyone with ambitions. Some Jews embraced it, some resisted it, and the argument between them is the real subject of the Maccabean books. In Alexandria the Hebrew scriptures are translated into Greek, producing the Septuagint, which is the Bible most New Testament writers quote.
- The crisis
- Antiochus IV bans the practice of Judaism, plunders the temple, and sets up a pagan altar in it in 167 BC. The revolt under the Maccabees wins, the temple is rededicated in 164 BC, which is the origin of Hanukkah, and Judea has about eighty years of independence under the Hasmoneans before Rome arrives.
- Further afield
- Rome fights Carthage three times and ends up master of the Mediterranean. Euclid writes the Elements and Archimedes does his work at Syracuse. In China the Qin unify the country in 221 BC and the Han follow, opening what becomes the Silk Road.