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Wisdom 5

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1 τότε στήσεται ἐν παρρησίᾳ πολλῇ ὁ δίκαιος κατὰ πρόσωπον τῶν θλιψάντων αὐτὸν καὶ τῶν ἀθετούντων τοὺς πόνους αὐτοῦ 2 ἰδόντες ταραχθήσονται φόβῳ δεινῷ καὶ ἐκστήσονται ἐπὶ τῷ παραδόξῳ τῆς σωτηρίας 3 ἐροῦσιν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς μετανοοῦντες καὶ διὰ στενοχωρίαν πνεύματος στενάξονται καὶ ἐροῦσιν 4 οὗτος ἦν ὃν ἔσχομέν ποτε εἰς γέλωτα καὶ εἰς παραβολὴν ὀνειδισμοῦ οἱ ἄφρονες τὸν βίον αὐτοῦ ἐλογισάμεθα μανίαν καὶ τὴν τελευτὴν αὐτοῦ ἄτιμον 5 πῶς κατελογίσθη ἐν υἱοῖς θεοῦ καὶ ἐν ἁγίοις ὁ κλῆρος αὐτοῦ ἐστιν

1 How boldly, then, will the just man appear, to meet his old persecutors, that thwarted all his striving! 2 And they, in what craven fear they will cower at the sight of him, amazed at the sudden reversal of his fortunes! 3 Inward remorse will wring a groan from those hearts: Why, these were the men we made into a laughing-stock and a by-word! 4 We, poor fools, mistook the life they lived for madness, their death for ignominy; 5 and now they are reckoned as God’s own children, now it is among his holy ones that their lot is cast.[1]

1

Tunc stabunt justi in magna constantia
adversus eos qui se angustiaverunt,
et qui abstulerunt labores eorum. 2
Videntes turbabuntur timore horribili,
et mirabuntur in subitatione insperatæ salutis; 3
dicentes intra se, pœnitentiam agentes,
et præ angustia spiritus gementes:
Hi sunt quos habuimus aliquando in derisum,
et in similitudinem improperii. 4
Nos insensati, vitam illorum æstimabamus insaniam,
et finem illorum sine honore; 5
ecce quomodo computati sunt inter filios Dei,
et inter sanctos sors illorum est.

6 ἄρα ἐπλανήθημεν ἀπὸ ὁδοῦ ἀληθείας καὶ τὸ τῆς δικαιοσύνης φῶς οὐκ ἐπέλαμψεν ἡμῖν καὶ ὁ ἥλιος οὐκ ἀνέτειλεν ἡμῖν 7 ἀνομίας ἐνεπλήσθημεν τρίβοις καὶ ἀπωλείας καὶ διωδεύσαμεν ἐρήμους ἀβάτους τὴν δὲ ὁδὸν κυρίου οὐκ ἐπέγνωμεν 8 τί ὠφέλησεν ἡμᾶς ἡ ὑπερηφανία καὶ τί πλοῦτος μετὰ ἀλαζονείας συμβέβληται ἡμῖν 9 παρῆλθεν ἐκεῖνα πάντα ὡς σκιὰ καὶ ὡς ἀγγελία παρατρέχουσα 10 ὡς ναῦς διερχομένη κυμαινόμενον ὕδωρ ἧς διαβάσης οὐκ ἔστιν ἴχνος εὑρεῖν οὐδὲ ἀτραπὸν τρόπιος αὐτῆς ἐν κύμασιν 11 ἢ ὡς ὀρνέου διιπτάντος ἀέρα οὐθὲν εὑρίσκεται τεκμήριον πορείας πληγῇ δὲ μαστιζόμενον ταρσῶν πνεῦμα κοῦφον καὶ σχιζόμενον βίᾳ ῥοίζου κινουμένων πτερύγων διωδεύθη καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο οὐχ εὑρέθη σημεῖον ἐπιβάσεως ἐν αὐτῷ 12 ἢ ὡς βέλους βληθέντος ἐπὶ σκοπὸν τμηθεὶς ὁ ἀὴρ εὐθέως εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἀνελύθη ὡς ἀγνοῆσαι τὴν δίοδον αὐτοῦ 13 οὕτως καὶ ἡμεῖς γεννηθέντες ἐξελίπομεν καὶ ἀρετῆς μὲν σημεῖον οὐδὲν ἔσχομεν δεῖξαι ἐν δὲ τῇ κακίᾳ ἡμῶν κατεδαπανήθημεν

6 Far, it seems, did our thoughts wander from the true path; never did the ray of justice enlighten them, never the true sun shone. 7 Weary it proved, the reckless way of ruin, lonely were the wastes we travelled, who missed the path the Lord meant for us. 8 What advantage has it brought us, all our pomp and pride? How are we the better for all our vaunted wealth? 9 Nothing of that but is gone, unsubstantial as a shadow, swift as courier upon his errand. 10 The ship that ploughs angry waves, what trace is left of her passage? How wilt thou track her keel’s pathway through the deep? 11 The bird’s flight through air what print betrays? So fiercely lashed the still breeze with the beating of her pinions, as she cleaves her noisy way through heaven, wings flapping, and is gone; and afterwards, what sign of her going? 12 Or be it some arrow, shot at a mark, that pierces the air, how quick the wound closes, the journey is forgotten! 13 So with us it was all one, our coming to birth and our ceasing to be; no trace might we leave behind us of a life well lived; we spent ourselves on ill-doing.

6
Ergo erravimus a via veritatis,
et justitiæ lumen non luxit nobis,
et sol intelligentiæ non est ortus nobis. 7
Lassati sumus in via iniquitatis et perditionis,
et ambulavimus vias difficiles:
viam autem Domini ignoravimus. 8
Quid nobis profuit superbia?
aut divitiarum jactantia quid contulit nobis? 9
Transierunt omnia illa tamquam umbra,
et tamquam nuntius percurrens, 10
et tamquam navis quæ pertransit fluctuantem aquam,
cujus cum præterierit non est vestigium invenire,
neque semitam carinæ illius in fluctibus; 11
aut tamquam avis quæ transvolat in aëre,
cujus nullum invenitur argumentum itineris,
sed tantum sonitus alarum verberans levem ventum,
et scindens per vim itineris aërem:
commotis alis transvolavit,
et post hoc nullum signum invenitur itineris illius; 12
aut tamquam sagitta emissa in locum destinatum,
divisus aër continuo in se reclusus est,
ut ignoretur transitus illius: 13
sic et nos nati continuo desivimus esse;
et virtutis quidem nullum signum valuimus ostendere,
in malignitate autem nostra consumpti sumus.

14 15 ὅτι ἐλπὶς ἀσεβοῦς ὡς φερόμενος χνοῦς ὑπὸ ἀνέμου καὶ ὡς πάχνη ὑπὸ λαίλαπος διωχθεῖσα λεπτὴ καὶ ὡς καπνὸς ὑπὸ ἀνέμου διεχύθη καὶ ὡς μνεία καταλύτου μονοημέρου παρώδευσεν 16 δίκαιοι δὲ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ζῶσιν καὶ ἐν κυρίῳ ὁ μισθὸς αὐτῶν καὶ ἡ φροντὶς αὐτῶν παρὰ ὑψίστῳ 17 διὰ τοῦτο λήμψονται τὸ βασίλειον τῆς εὐπρεπείας καὶ τὸ διάδημα τοῦ κάλλους ἐκ χειρὸς κυρίου ὅτι τῇ δεξιᾷ σκεπάσει αὐτοὺς καὶ τῷ βραχίονι ὑπερασπιεῖ αὐτῶν 18 λήμψεται πανοπλίαν τὸν ζῆλον αὐτοῦ καὶ ὁπλοποιήσει τὴν κτίσιν εἰς ἄμυναν ἐχθρῶν 19 ἐνδύσεται θώρακα δικαιοσύνην καὶ περιθήσεται κόρυθα κρίσιν ἀνυπόκριτον 20 λήμψεται ἀσπίδα ἀκαταμάχητον ὁσιότητα 21 ὀξυνεῖ δὲ ἀπότομον ὀργὴν εἰς ῥομφαίαν συνεκπολεμήσει δὲ αὐτῷ ὁ κόσμος ἐπὶ τοὺς παράφρονας 22 πορεύσονται εὔστοχοι βολίδες ἀστραπῶν καὶ ὡς ἀπὸ εὐκύκλου τόξου τῶν νεφῶν ἐπὶ σκοπὸν ἁλοῦνται 23 καὶ ἐκ πετροβόλου θυμοῦ πλήρεις ῥιφήσονται χάλαζαι ἀγανακτήσει κα{T'} αὐτῶν ὕδωρ θαλάσσης ποταμοὶ δὲ συγκλύσουσιν ἀποτόμως 24 ἀντιστήσεται αὐτοῖς πνεῦμα δυνάμεως καὶ ὡς λαῖλαψ ἐκλικμήσει αὐτούς καὶ ἐρημώσει πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ἀνομία καὶ ἡ κακοπραγία περιτρέψει θρόνους δυναστῶν

14 (Such is the lament of sinners, there in the world beneath.[2]) 15 Short-lived are all the hopes of the godless, thistle-down in the wind, flying spray before the storm, smoke that whirls away in the breeze; as soon forgotten as the guest that comes for a day, and comes no more. 16 It is the just that will live for ever; the Lord has their recompense waiting for them, the most high God takes care of them. 17 How glorious is that kingdom, how beautiful that crown, which the Lord will bestow on them! His right hand is there to protect them, his holy arm to be their shield. 18 Indignantly he will take up arms, mustering all the forces of creation for vengeance on his enemies. 19 His own faithfulness is the breastplate he will put on, unswerving justice the helmet he wears, 20 a right cause his shield unfailing. 21 See, where he whets the sword of strict retribution, and the whole order of nature is banded with him against his reckless foes! 22 Well-aimed fly his thunder-bolts, sped far and wide from yonder cloud-arch, never missing their mark. 23 Teeming hail-storms shall whirl about them, the artillery of his vengeance; fiercely the sea’s waves shall roar against them, pitilessly the floods cut them off; 24 the storm-wind shall rise in their faces, and scatter them as the gust scatters chaff. The whole earth ransacked, and the thrones of the mighty pulled down, by their own disobedience, their own malignancy!

14
Talia dixerunt in inferno hi qui peccaverunt: 15
quoniam spes impii tamquam lanugo est quæ a vento tollitur,
et tamquam spuma gracilis quæ a procella dispergitur,
et tamquam fumus qui a vento diffusus est,
et tamquam memoria hospitis unius diei prætereuntis. 16
Justi autem in perpetuum vivent,
et apud Dominum est merces eorum,
et cogitatio illorum apud Altissimum. 17
Ideo accipient regnum decoris,
et diadema speciei de manu Domini:
quoniam dextera sua teget eos,
et brachio sancto suo defendet illos. 18
Accipiet armaturam zelus illius,
et armabit creaturam ad ultionem inimicorum. 19
Induet pro thorace justitiam,
et accipiet pro galea judicium certum; 20
sumet scutum inexpugnabile æquitatem. 21
Acuet autem duram iram in lanceam,
et pugnabit cum illo orbis terrarum contra insensatos. 22
Ibunt directe emissiones fulgurum,
et tamquam a bene curvato arcu nubium exterminabuntur,
et ad certum locum insilient. 23
Et a petrosa ira plenæ mittentur grandines;
excandescet in illos aqua maris,
et flumina concurrent duriter. 24
Contra illos stabit spiritus virtutis,
et tamquam turbo venti dividet illos;
et ad eremum perducet omnem terram iniquitas illorum,
et malignitas evertet sedes potentium.

[1] vv. 3-5: ‘These were the men …’ in the Greek text, ‘This is the man …’ the singular being used throughout.

[2] The words enclosed in brackets are not found in the Greek text.

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