✠ The Douay-Rheims Bible
✠ Wisdom 18
Chapters
WISD 18:1 But thy saints had a very great light, and they heard their voice indeed, but did not see their shape. And because they also did not suffer the same things, they glorified thee:
WISD 18:2 And they that before had been wronged, gave thanks, because they were not hurt now: and asked this gift, that there might be a difference.
WISD 18:3 Therefore they received a burning pillar of fire for a guide of the way which they knew not, and thou gavest them a harmless sun of a good entertainment.
WISD 18:4 The others indeed were worthy to be deprived of light, and imprisoned in darkness, who kept thy children shut up, by whom the pure light of the law was to be given to the world.
WISD 18:5 And whereas they thought to kill the babes of the just, one child being cast forth, and saved, to reprove them, thou tookest away a multitude of their children, and destroyedst them all together in a mighty water.
WISD 18:6 For that night was known before by our fathers, that assuredly knowing what oaths they had trusted to, they might be of better courage.
WISD 18:7 So thy people received the salvation of the just, and destruction of the unjust.
WISD 18:8 For as thou didst punish the adversaries: so thou didst also encourage and glorify us.
WISD 18:9 For the just children of good men were offering sacrifice secretly, and they unanimously ordered a law of justice: that the just should receive both good and evil alike, singing now the praises of the fathers.
WISD 18:10 But on the other side there sounded an ill according cry of the enemies, and a lamentable mourning was heard for the children that were bewailed.
WISD 18:11 And the servant suffered the same punishment as the master, and a common man suffered in like manner as the king.
WISD 18:12 So all alike had innumerable dead, with one kind of death. Neither were the living sufficient to bury them; for in one moment the noblest offspring of them was destroyed.
WISD 18:13 For whereas they would not believe any thing before by reason of the enchantments, then first upon the destruction of the firstborn, they acknowledged the people to be of God.
WISD 18:14 For while all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course,
WISD 18:15 Thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne, as a fierce conqueror into the midst of the land of destruction.
WISD 18:16 With a sharp sword carrying thy unfeigned commandment, and he stood and filled all things with death, and standing on the earth reached even to heaven.
WISD 18:17 Then suddenly visions of evil dreams troubled them, and fears unlooked for came upon them.
WISD 18:18 And one thrown here, another there, half dead, shewed the cause of his death.
WISD 18:19 For the visions that troubled them foreshewed these things, lest they should perish and not know why they suffered these evils.
WISD 18:20 But the just also were afterwards touched by an assault of death, and there was a disturbance of the multitude in the wilderness: but thy wrath did not long continue.
WISD 18:21 For a blameless man made haste to pray for the people, bringing forth the shield of his ministry, prayer, and by incense making supplication, withstood the wrath, and put an end to the calamity, shewing that he was thy servant.
WISD 18:22 And he overcame the disturbance, not by strength of body nor with force of arms, but with a word he subdued him that punished them, alleging the oaths and covenant made with the fathers.
WISD 18:23 For when they were now fallen down dead by heaps one upon another, he stood between and stayed the assault, and cut off the way to the living.
WISD 18:24 For in the priestly robe which he wore, was the whole world: and in the four rows of the stones the glory of the fathers was graven, and thy majesty was written upon the diadem of his head.