Wisdom 1

¹Love righteousness, you who judge the earth;[#: not merely the cardinal virtue of justice (cf. 8:7), but the universal moral quality which is the application of wisdom to moral conduct. : “judges” and “kings” (cf. 6:1) are addressed in accordance with the literary customs of the times and with the putative Solomonic authorship, but the real audience is the Jewish community.; #1 Chr 29:17; Ps 2:10; Is 26:9.]

think of the Lord in goodness,

and seek him in integrity of heart;

²Because he is found by those who do not test him,

and manifests himself to those who do not disbelieve him.

³For perverse counsels separate people from God,

and his power, put to the proof, rebukes the foolhardy;

⁴Because into a soul that plots evil wisdom does not enter,[#In these verses personified Wisdom is identified with the spirit of the Lord; so also in 9:17.]

nor does she dwell in a body under debt of sin.

⁵For the holy spirit of discipline flees deceit[#: here and elsewhere, another name for Wisdom.]

and withdraws from senseless counsels

and is rebuked when unrighteousness occurs.

⁶For wisdom is a kindly spirit,

yet she does not acquit blasphemous lips;

Because God is the witness of the inmost self

and the sure observer of the heart

and the listener to the tongue.

⁷For the spirit of the Lord fills the world,[#Wis 12:1.]

is all-embracing, and knows whatever is said.

⁸Therefore those who utter wicked things will not go unnoticed,

nor will chastising condemnation pass them by.

⁹For the devices of the wicked shall be scrutinized,

and the sound of their words shall reach the Lord ,

for the chastisement of their transgressions;

¹⁰Because a jealous ear hearkens to everything,[#Nm 14:27–28.]

and discordant grumblings are not secret.

¹¹Therefore guard against profitless grumbling,

and from calumny withhold your tongues;

For a stealthy utterance will not go unpunished,

and a lying mouth destroys the soul.

¹²Do not court death by your erring way of life,[#: as will become clear, the author is not speaking of physical death but of spiritual death, the eternal separation from God.]

nor draw to yourselves destruction by the works of your hands.

¹³Because God did not make death,[#Ez 18:32; 33:11; 2 Pt 3:9.]

nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.

¹⁴For he fashioned all things that they might have being,

and the creatures of the world are wholesome;

There is not a destructive drug among them

nor any domain of Hades on earth,

¹⁵For righteousness is undying.[#: immortality is not seen as an innate quality of the soul but as a gift of God to the righteous.; #Is 51:6–8.]

¹⁶It was the wicked who with hands and words invited death,

considered it a friend, and pined for it,

and made a covenant with it,

Because they deserve to be allied with it.