King James Version · Under the Greeks
Wisdom of Solomon 12
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1For thine incorruptible is in all things. 2Therefore 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 on thee, O . 3For it was thy will to destroy by the hands of our fathers both those old inhabitants of thy land, 4Whom thou hatedst for doing most odious works of witchcrafts, and ; 5And also those merciless of children, and devourers of man’s , and the feasts of , 6With their priests out of the midst of their idolatrous crew, and the parents, that killed with their own hands destitute of help: 7That the land, which thou esteemedst above all other, might receive a worthy colony of ’s children. 8Nevertheless even those thou sparedst as men, and didst send wasps, forerunners of thine host, to destroy them by little and little. 9Not that thou wast unable to bring the ungodly under the hand of in battle, or to destroy them at once with cruel , or with one rough word: 10But executing thy judgments upon them by little and little, thou gavest them place of , 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. 11For it was a ; neither didst thou for fear of any man give them pardon for those things wherein they . 12For who shall say, What hast thou done? or who shall withstand thy ? or who shall accuse thee for the nations that , whom thou made? or who shall come to stand against thee, to be revenged for the unrighteous men? 13For neither is there any but thou that careth for all, to whom thou mightest shew that thy is not unright. 14Neither shall king or tyrant be able to set against thee for any whom thou hast punished. 15Forsomuch then as thou art thyself, thou orderest all things righteously: thinking it not agreeable with thy to condemn him that hath not deserved to be punished. 16For thy is the beginning of , and because thou art of all, it maketh thee to be unto all. 17For when men will not that thou art of a full , thou shewest thy strength, and among them that know it thou makest their boldness manifest. 18But thou, mastering thy , judgest with equity, and orderest us with great : for thou mayest use when thou wilt. 19But by such works hast thou taught thy people that the man should be merciful, and hast made thy children to be of a good that thou givest for . 20For if thou didst punish the of thy children, and the condemned to , with such deliberation, giving them time and place, whereby they might be from their malice: 21With how great circumspection didst thou judge thine own sons, unto whose fathers thou hast , and made of good promises? 22Therefore, whereas thou dost us, thou scourgest our 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. 23Wherefore, whereas men have lived dissolutely and unrighteously, thou hast tormented them with their own . 24For they went astray very far in the ways of error, and held them for gods, which even among the of their were despised, being deceived, as children of no understanding. 25Therefore unto them, as to children without the use of reason, thou didst send a to mock them. 26But they that would not be reformed by that , wherein he dallied with them, shall feel a worthy of . 27For, 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 , whom before they denied to know: and therefore came extreme damnation upon them.
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.