Wisdom 1

Wisdom of Solomon 1

Exhortation to Uprightness

¹Love righteousness, you rulers of the earth;[#Deut 1.16; 1 Kings 3.3, 9; Isa 56.1]

think of the Lord in goodness

and seek him with sincerity of heart,

²because he is found by those who do not put him to the test[#Deut 4.29]

and manifests himself to those who do not distrust him.

³For perverse thoughts separate people from God,[#Ps 125.5]

and when his power is tested, it exposes the foolish,

⁴because wisdom will not enter a deceitful soul

or dwell in a body enslaved to sin.

⁵For a holy and disciplined spirit will flee from deceit[#Jer 4.22]

and will leave foolish thoughts behind

and will be ashamed at the approach of unrighteousness.

⁶For wisdom is a kindly spirit,[#Ps 139.4; Jer 17.10; Heb 4.12]

but it will not free blasphemers from the guilt of their words,

because God is witness of their inmost feelings

and a true observer of their hearts and a hearer of their tongues.

⁷Because the spirit of the Lord has filled the world[#Isa 6.3; Jer 23.24]

and that which holds all things together knows what is said,

⁸therefore those who utter unrighteous things will not escape notice,

and justice, when it punishes, will not pass them by.

⁹For inquiry will be made into the counsels of the ungodly,

and a report of their words will come to the Lord,

to convict them of their lawless deeds,

¹⁰because a jealous ear hears all things,[#Wis 5.17; Phil 2.14]

and the sound of grumbling does not go unheard.

¹¹Beware, then, of useless grumbling,[#Prov 19.9; Mt 12.36; 2 Cor 12.20; Phil 2.14]

and keep your tongue from slander,

because no secret word is without result,

and a lying mouth destroys the soul.

¹²Do not court death by the error of your life[#Ex 20.4, 5]

or bring on destruction by the works of your hands,

¹³because God did not make death,[#Ezek 33.11; Wis 2.24; 2 Esd 8.59]

and he does not delight in the destruction of the living.

¹⁴For he created all things so that they might exist;[#Gen 1.31]

the generative forces of the world are wholesome,

and there is no destructive poison in them,

and the dominion of Hades is not on earth.

¹⁵For righteousness is immortal.[#1.15 OL adds but unrighteousness is the acquisition of death]

Life as the Ungodly See It

¹⁶But the ungodly by their words and deeds summoned death;[#Isa 28.15, 18; Wis 2.24; #1.16 Gk him]

considering him a friend, they pined away

and made a covenant with him,

because they are fit to belong to his company.