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Wisdom 1

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1 Ἀγαπήσατε δικαιοσύνην οἱ κρίνοντες τὴν γῆν φρονήσατε περὶ τοῦ κυρίου ἐν ἀγαθότητι καὶ ἐν ἁπλότητι καρδίας ζητήσατε αὐτόν 2 ὅτι εὑρίσκεται τοῖς μὴ πειράζουσιν αὐτόν ἐμφανίζεται δὲ τοῖς μὴ ἀπιστοῦσιν αὐτῷ 3 σκολιοὶ γὰρ λογισμοὶ χωρίζουσιν ἀπὸ θεοῦ δοκιμαζομένη τε ἡ δύναμις ἐλέγχει τοὺς ἄφρονας 4 ὅτι εἰς κακότεχνον ψυχὴν οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται σοφία οὐδὲ κατοικήσει ἐν σώματι κατάχρεῳ ἁμαρτίας 5 ἅγιον γὰρ πνεῦμα παιδείας φεύξεται δόλον καὶ ἀπαναστήσεται ἀπὸ λογισμῶν ἀσυνέτων καὶ ἐλεγχθήσεται ἐπελθούσης ἀδικίας 6 φιλάνθρωπον γὰρ πνεῦμα σοφία καὶ οὐκ ἀθῳώσει βλάσφημον ἀπὸ χειλέων αὐτοῦ ὅτι τῶν νεφρῶν αὐτοῦ μάρτυς ὁ θεὸς καὶ τῆς καρδίας αὐτοῦ ἐπίσκοπος ἀληθὴς καὶ τῆς γλώσσης ἀκουστής 7 ὅτι πνεῦμα κυρίου πεπλήρωκεν τὴν οἰκουμένην καὶ τὸ συνέχον τὰ πάντα γνῶσιν ἔχει φωνῆς 8 διὰ τοῦτο φθεγγόμενος ἄδικα οὐδεὶς μὴ λάθῃ οὐδὲ μὴ παροδεύσῃ αὐτὸν ἐλέγχουσα ἡ δίκη 9 ἐν γὰρ διαβουλίοις ἀσεβοῦς ἐξέτασις ἔσται λόγων δὲ αὐτοῦ ἀκοὴ πρὸς κύριον ἥξει εἰς ἔλεγχον ἀνομημάτων αὐτοῦ 10 ὅτι οὖς ζηλώσεως ἀκροᾶται τὰ πάντα καὶ θροῦς γογγυσμῶν οὐκ ἀποκρύπτεται

1 Listen, all you who are judges here on earth. Learn to love justice; learn to think high thoughts of what God is, and with sincere hearts aspire to him. 2 Trust him thou must, if find him thou wouldst; he does not reveal himself to one that challenges his power. 3 Man’s truant thoughts may keep God at a distance, but when the test of strength comes, folly is shewn in its true colours; 4 never yet did wisdom find her way into the schemer’s heart, never yet made her home in a life mortgaged to sin. 5 A holy thing it is, the spirit that brings instruction; how it shrinks away from the touch of falsehood, holds aloof from every rash design! It is a touchstone, to betray the neighbourhood of wrong-doing. 6 A good friend to man is this spirit of wisdom, that convicts the blasphemer of his wild words; God can witness his secret thoughts, can read his heart unerringly, and shall his utterance go unheard? 7 No, the spirit of the Lord fills the whole world; bond that holds all things in being, it takes cognisance of every sound we utter; 8 how should ill speech go unmarked, or the scrutiny of justice pass it by? 9 The hidden counsel of the godless will all come to light; no word of it but reaches the divine hearing, and betrays their wicked design; 10 that jealous ear is still listening, and all their busy murmuring shall stand revealed.

1

Diligite justitiam, qui judicatis terram.
Sentite de Domino in bonitate,
et in simplicitate cordis quærite illum: 2
quoniam invenitur ab his qui non tentant illum,
apparet autem eis qui fidem habent in illum. 3
Perversæ enim cogitationes separant a Deo;
probata autem virtus corripit insipientes. 4
Quoniam in malevolam animam non introibit sapientia,
nec habitabit in corpore subdito peccatis. 5
Spiritus enim sanctus disciplinæ effugiet fictum,
et auferet se a cogitationibus quæ sunt sine intellectu,
et corripietur a superveniente iniquitate. 6
Benignus est enim spiritus sapientiæ,
et non liberabit maledicum a labiis suis:
quoniam renum illius testis est Deus,
et cordis illius scrutator est verus,
et linguæ ejus auditor. 7
Quoniam spiritus Domini replevit orbem terrarum,
et hoc quod continet omnia, scientiam habet vocis. 8
Propter hoc qui loquitur iniqua non potest latere,
nec præteriet illum corripiens judicium. 9
In cogitationibus enim impii interrogatio erit;
sermonum autem illius auditio ad Deum veniet,
ad correptionem iniquitatum illius. 10
Quoniam auris zeli audit omnia,
et tumultus murmurationum non abscondetur.

11 φυλάξασθε τοίνυν γογγυσμὸν ἀνωφελῆ καὶ ἀπὸ καταλαλιᾶς φείσασθε γλώσσης ὅτι φθέγμα λαθραῖον κενὸν οὐ πορεύσεται στόμα δὲ καταψευδόμενον ἀναιρεῖ ψυχήν 12 μὴ ζηλοῦτε θάνατον ἐν πλάνῃ ζωῆς ὑμῶν μηδὲ ἐπισπᾶσθε ὄλεθρον ἐν ἔργοις χειρῶν ὑμῶν 13 ὅτι ὁ θεὸς θάνατον οὐκ ἐποίησεν οὐδὲ τέρπεται ἐ{P'} ἀπωλείᾳ ζώντων 14 ἔκτισεν γὰρ εἰς τὸ εἶναι τὰ πάντα καὶ σωτήριοι αἱ γενέσεις τοῦ κόσμου καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐταῖς φάρμακον ὀλέθρου οὔτε ᾅδου βασίλειον ἐπὶ γῆς 15 δικαιοσύνη γὰρ ἀθάνατός ἐστιν 16 ἀσεβεῖς δὲ ταῖς χερσὶν καὶ τοῖς λόγοις προσεκαλέσαντο αὐτόν φίλον ἡγησάμενοι αὐτὸν ἐτάκησαν καὶ συνθήκην ἔθεντο πρὸς αὐτόν ὅτι ἄξιοί εἰσιν τῆς ἐκείνου μερίδος εἶναι

11 Beware, then, of whispering, and to ill purpose; ever let your tongues refrain from calumny. Think not that the secret word goes for nought; lying lips were ever the soul’s destroying. 12 Death for its goal, is not life’s aim missed? Labours he well, that labours to bring doom about his ears? 13 Death was never of God’s fashioning; not for his pleasure does life cease to be; 14 what meant his creation, but that all created things should have being? No breed has he created on earth but for its thriving; none carries in itself the seeds of its own destruction. Think not that mortality bears sway on earth;[1] 15 no end nor term is fixed to a life well lived …[2] 16 It is the wicked that have brought death on themselves, by word and deed of their own; court death, and melt away in its embrace, keep tryst with it, and lay claim to its partnership.

11
Custodite ergo vos a murmuratione quæ nihil prodest,
et a detractione parcite linguæ:
quoniam sermo obscurus in vacuum non ibit,
os autem quod mentitur occidit animam. 12

Nolite zelare mortem in errore vitæ vestræ,
neque acquiratis perditionem in operibus manuum vestrarum. 13
Quoniam Deus mortem non fecit,
nec lætatur in perditione vivorum. 14
Creavit enim ut essent omnia,
et sanabiles fecit nationes orbis terrarum:
et non est in illis medicamentum exterminii,
nec inferorum regnum in terra. 15
Justitia enim perpetua est, et immortalis. 16
Impii autem manibus et verbis accersierunt illam,
et æstimantes illam amicam, defluxerunt;
et sponsiones posuerunt ad illam,
quoniam digni sunt qui sint ex parte illius.

[1] What is said here is understood by some as referring only to human life; others take it as implying that mortality in general owes its origin to the fall of Adam.

[2] This verse seems to be incomplete; the old Sixtine Vulgate adds, on the authority of certain Latin manuscripts, the phrase ‘death is earned only by wrong-doing’.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd