Wisdom of Solomon 16

⁵When you were angry with your people and were destroying them with poisonous snakes, you stopped before all of them died,[#Nu 21.6-9.]

⁶because you did this merely as a warning. Then you told them to make a metal snake, so that they would be rescued and remember to obey your Law.

⁷Everyone who looked at the metal snake was saved, not because of the snake itself, but because of you, the Savior of all people.

⁸By doing this, you proved to our enemies that you alone can protect people from harm,

⁹because many of them got what they deserved, when they died from the bites of locusts and flies.

¹⁰But you were merciful to your children and healed them from poisonous snake bites,

¹¹so that they would remember your teachings and never forget your kindness.[#16.11 One possible meaning for the difficult Greek text.]

¹²Medicine isn't what healed them. Only your word can heal,

¹³because you rule both life and death and possess the power to give life or to take it away.

¹⁴It's easy enough for us humans to kill another in anger, but we don't have the power to bring back a departed spirit or to set a soul free from the world of the dead.

Egypt Is Struck by Storms

¹⁵No one can escape from you, our God.

¹⁶And when those evil Egyptians rejected you and tried to escape, you punished them with your mighty arm and wiped them out with rainstorms, hailstones, and fiery lightning.

¹⁷Although water is used to put out a fire, an amazing thing happened—the water made the fire even more destructive, because nature itself protects good people.

¹⁸One time you kept the fire under control, so that it would not destroy the frogs and flies that were sent to punish those pagans and to let them know you were the one doing all of this.

¹⁹But at another time, you let it burn out of control—even in water—to wipe out the crops in that evil country.

God Provides Manna for His People

²⁰You blessed your people with manna, that food of angels, the bread you sent down from heaven. It satisfied their hunger and tasted delicious.[#Ex 16.1-36.; #16.20 manna: The special food that God provided for the Israelites while they were in the desert for forty years. It was about the size of a small seed, and it appeared on the ground during the night, except on the Sabbath. It was gathered early in the morning, ground up, and then baked or boiled (see Exodus 16.13-36; Numbers 11.4-9).]

²¹Your care for your people was as sweet as this bread that everyone enjoyed so much.

²²And though the bread was frail as snowflakes, it did not melt in the fiery flames that your enemies saw destroying their crops during the hailstorm.

²³Contrary to nature, the fire did not spread to the crops of your people.

²⁴All of creation serves you, its Creator, and uses its power to punish those who are evil and to show kindness to those who trust in you.

²⁵And so on that occasion, the forces of the universe changed the way they work, in order to serve your purpose by answering the prayers

²⁶of your precious children. This was also your way of teaching them not to depend upon their crops, but rather to depend upon your word, since it takes care of those who trust you.

²⁷Even the manna that survived the fire then melted in the warmth of the sun.

²⁸This shows that we must rise before dawn to pray to you,

²⁹because if we are ungrateful, our hope will melt like frost and flow away like dirty water.