Basic HTML Version
15
Forsomuch then as thou art righteous thyself, thou orderest all things righteously: thinking it
not agreeable with thy power to condemn him that hath not deserved to be punished.
16
For thy power is the beginning of righteousness, and because thou art the Lord of all, it maketh
thee to be gracious unto all.
17
For when men will not believe that thou art of a full power, thou shewest thy strength, and
among them that know it thou makest their boldness manifest.
18
But thou, mastering thy power, judgest with equity, and orderest us with great favour: for
thou mayest use power when thou wilt.
19
But by such works hast thou taught thy people that the just man should be merciful, and hast
made thy children to be of a good hope that thou givest repentance for sins.
20
For if thou didst punish the enemies of thy children, and the condemned to death, with such
deliberation, giving them time and place, whereby they might be delivered from their malice:
21
With how great circumspection didst thou judge thine own sons, unto whose fathers thou hast
sworn, and made covenants of good promises?
22
Therefore, whereas thou dost chasten us, thou scourgest our enemies 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.
23
Wherefore, whereas men have lived dissolutely and unrighteously, thou hast tormented them
with their own abominations.
24
For they went astray very far in the ways of error, and held them for gods, which even among
the beasts of their enemies were despised, being deceived, as children of no understanding.
25
Therefore unto them, as to children without the use of reason, thou didst send a judgment to
mock them.
26
But they that would not be reformed by that correction, wherein he dallied with them, shall
feel a judgment worthy of God.
27
For, 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 God, whom before they denied to know: and therefore came extreme damnation upon
them.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON 13
Surely vain are all men by nature, who are ignorant of God, and could not out of the good things
that are seen know him that is: neither by considering the works did they acknowledge the
workmaster;
2
But deemed either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the violent water,
or the lights of heaven, to be the gods which govern the world.
1114
KJV Bible