Wisdom of Solomon · Brenton's English Septuagint
Wisdom of Solomon 2 Brenton's English Septuagint
Notes on this text (2)
- Square brackets mark words Brenton supplied for English sense.
- Old Testament only (no New Testament). First printed 1844; the 1851 edition added the deuterocanonical books.
Wisdom of Solomon is not in RV1909.
1 For [the ungodly] said, reasoning with themselves, [but] not aright, Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave.
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2 For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been: for the breath in our nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart:
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3 which being extinguished, our body shall be turned to ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air,
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4 and our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall have our works in remembrance, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and overcome with the heat thereof.
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5 For our time is a very shadow that passeth away; and after our end there is no returning: for it is fast sealed, so that no man cometh again.
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6 Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth.
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7 Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments: and let no flower of the spring pass by us.
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8 Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered:
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9 let none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness: let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place: for this is our portion, and our lot is this.
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10 Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient grey hairs of the aged.
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11 Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.
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12 Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education.
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13 He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord.
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14 He was made to reprove our thoughts.
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15 He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, his ways are of another fashion.
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16 We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his father.
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17 Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him.
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18 For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.
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19 Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.
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20 Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.
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21 Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.
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22 As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls.
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23 For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.
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24 Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that are of his side do find it.
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What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… is become blind in His faith, neither walks in the ordinances of His appointment, nor acts a part becoming a Christian, but walks after his own wicked lusts, resuming the practice of an unrighteous and ungodly envy, by which death itself entered into the world. Chapter IV — Many evils have already flowed from this source in ancient times For …
For he says, what it was foretold in the book of Wisdom that he should say, "He is grievous unto us, even to behold; for his life is not like other men's." Therefore he "seeks to slay him." What?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
"Let us condemn Him with a most shameful death, for by His own sayings He shall be respected;" for if he is indeed the Son of God, He will deliver Him from the hands of His adversaries: He will not suffer His Son to die, if He is truly His Son.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
… saith, "Behold there cometh the Prince of the world," being an acute observer of all sins; "Behold," He saith, "there cometh the Prince of this world," with death afflicting sinners, presiding over death: for, "By the malice of the devil death came into the world." "Behold," He saith, "there cometh the Prince of the world:"--He said these words close upon …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)