Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

1 O how good and gracious, Lord, is your spirit in all things!

2 Therefore, those who wander afield, you correct, and, as to those who sin, you counsel them and admonish them, so that, having abandoned malice, they may believe in you, O Lord.

3 For those ancient inhabitants of your holy land, who you abhorred,

4 because they were doing works hateful to you, through unjust medicines and sacrifices,

5 and the merciless murderers of their own sons, and the eaters of human entrails, and the devourers of blood apart from your community sacrament,

6 and the sellers performing the ceremonies of helpless souls, you willed to destroy by the hands of our parents,

7 so that they might worthily secure the sojourn of the children of God, in the land which is most beloved by you.

8 Yet, so that you were lenient even to these men, you sent wasps, forerunners of your army, so that you might destroy them little by little,

9 not because you were unable to subdue the impious under the just by war or by cruel beasts, or with a harsh word to exterminate them at once,

10 but, in judging by degrees, you were giving them a place of repentance, not unaware that their nation is wicked, and their malice is inherent, and that their thinking could never be changed.

11 For this offspring was accursed from the beginning. Neither did you, fearing anyone, give favor to their sins.

12 For who will say to you, “What have you done?” Or who will stand against your judgment? Or who will come before you as a defender of unfair men? Or who will accuse you, if the nations perish, which you have made?

13 For neither is there any other God but you, who has care of all, to whom you would show that you did not give judgment unjustly.

14 Neither will king or tyrant inquire before you about those whom you destroyed.

15 Therefore, since you are just, you order all things justly, considering it foreign to your virtue to condemn him who does not deserve to be punished.

16 For your power is the beginning of justice, and, because you are Lord of all, you make yourself to be lenient to all.

17 For you reveal power to those who do not believe you to be perfect in power, and you expose the arrogance of those who do not know you.

18 Yet, you are the master of power, since you judge with tranquility, and since you administer us with great reverence; for it is close to you to be used whenever you will.

19 But you have taught your people, through such works, that they must be just and humane, and you have made your sons to be of good hope, because in judging you provide a place for repentance from sins.

20 For even if the enemies of your servants were deserving of death, you afflicted them with great attentiveness, providing a time and a place whereby they would be able to be changed from malice;

21 with what diligence, then, have you judged your sons, whose parents you have given oaths and covenants in good faith!

22 Therefore, while you give us discipline, you give our enemies a multiplicity of scourges, so that in judging we may think on your goodness, and when we are judged, we may hope for mercy.

23 Therefore, also to these, who have lived their lived their life irrationally and unjustly, through these things that they worshiped, you gave the greatest torments.

24 And, indeed, they wandered for a long time in the way of error, valuing those things as gods, which are worthless even among animals, living in foolish irrational behavior.

25 Because of this, you have given a judgment in derision, as if from foolish children.

26 But those who have not been corrected by mockery and chiding, have experienced a judgment worthy of God.

27 For among those who were indignant at their sufferings, which came through those things that they reputed to be gods, when they saw that they would be destroyed by these same things, those who formerly refused knowledge of him, now acknowledged the true God, and, because of this, the end of their condemnation came upon them.

1 But all men are vain, who are not under the knowledge of God, and who, from these good things that are seen, were not able to understand he who is, nor, by paying attention to the works, did they acknowledge he who was the artisan.

2 Instead, they had considered either the fire, or the air, or the atmosphere, or the circle of stars, or the great sea, or the sun and moon, to be the gods that rule the world.

3 If they, being delighted by such sights, supposed them to be gods, let them know how great the Lord of them is in splendor. For he who created all things is the author of beauty.

4 Or, if they wondered at their power and their effects, let them understand by these things, that he who created them is mightier than they are.

5 For, by the greatness of the creation and its beauty, the creator of these will be able to be seen discernibly.

6 Yet, up to this point, the complaint about this is lesser. For perhaps they made a mistake in this, while desiring and seeking to find God.

7 And, indeed, having some familiarity with him through his works, they search, and they are persuaded, because the things that they are seeing are good.

8 But, then again, neither can their debt be ignored.

9 For, if they were able to know enough so that they could value the universe, how is it they did not easily discover the Lord of it?

10 Yet they are unhappy, and their hope is among the dead, for they have called ‘gods’ the works of the hands of men, gold and silver, the inventions of skill, and the likeness of animals, or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand.

11 Or, it is as if a craftsman, a workman of the forest, had cut straight wood, and, with his expertise, shaved off all of its bark, and, with his skill, diligently fashioned a vessel, practical for use in life,

12 and even the remains of his work were exhausted in the preparation of food;

13 and, from the remainder of this, which has become useful for nothing, a curved piece of wood and full of knots, he diligently carves it in his spare time, and, through the knowledge of his art, forms it and makes it in the image of a man,

14 or something comparable to an animal, thoroughly rubbing it with red ochre, to make it red with the color of the pigment, and to cover every imperfection which is in it;

15 and it is as if he made a fitting resting place for it, even setting it in a wall and fastening it with iron,

16 providing for it, lest it should fall, knowing that it is unable to help itself, for it is an image and it is in need of help.

17 And then, making an offering, he inquires about his wealth, and about his sons, and about marriage. And he is not ashamed to talk to that which has no soul.

18 And for health, indeed, something unhealthy is being prayed to, and for life, he petitions what is dead, and for help, he calls upon something helpless,

19 and for a good journey, he entreats that which is unable to walk, and for acquiring, and for working, and for success in all things, he entreats that which is useless in all things.

1 Again, another, thinking to sail, and beginning to make his voyage through the raging waves, calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the wood that carries him.

2 For this is what desire has contrived to be acquired, and the craftsman has formed its understanding.

3 But your providence, O Father, governs, because you have provided for both a way in the sea and a very reliable path among the waves,

4 revealing that you are able to save out of all things, even if someone were to go to sea without skill.

5 But, so that the works of your wisdom might not be empty, therefore, men trust their souls even to a little piece of wood, and, crossing over the sea by raft, they are set free.

6 But, from the beginning, when the proud giants were perishing, the hope of the world, fleeing by boat, gave back to future ages a seed of birth, which was governed by your hand.

7 For blessed is the wood through which justice is made.

8 But, through the hand that makes the idol, both it, and he who made it, is accursed: he, indeed, because it has been served by him, and it, because, though it is fragile, it is called ‘god.’

9 But the impious and his impiety are similarly offensive to God.

10 For that which is made, together with him who made it, will suffer torments.

11 Because of this, and according to the idolatries of the nations, there will be no refuge, for the things created by God have been made into hatred, and into a temptation to the souls of men, and into a snare for the feet of the foolish.

12 For the beginning of fornication is the search for idols, and from their invention comes corruption of life.

13 For they neither existed from the beginning, nor will they exist forever.

14 For by the great emptiness of men they came into the world, and therefore their end is soon discovered.

15 For a father, embittered with the suffering of grief, made an image of his son, who had been suddenly taken away from him, and then, he who had died as a man, now begins to be worshiped as if a god, and so rites and sacrifices are established among his servants.

16 Then, in the course of time, iniquity gains strength within this erroneous custom, so that this error has been observed as if it were a law, and this figment has been worshiped at the command of tyrants.

17 And those, whom men could not openly honor because they were far off, a likeness of them was carried from far off, and from it they made a similar image of the king that they wanted to honor, so that, by their solicitude, they might worship he who was absent, just as if he were present.

18 Yet, it passes into their care, and those whom they did not know, they love because of the excellence of the artist.

19 For he, wishing to please the one who hired him, embellished his art, so as to fashion a better likeness.

20 But the multitude of men, brought together by the beauty of the work, now considered him to be a god, whom they had formerly honored as a man.

21 And this was the deception of human life: that men, serving either their own inclination or their kings, assigned the unutterable name to stones and wood.

22 And it was not enough for them to go astray concerning the knowledge of God, but also, while living in a great war of ignorance, they call so many and such great evils ‘peace.’

23 For either they sacrifice their own sons, or they make dark sacrifices, or they hold vigils full of madness,

24 so that now they neither protect life, nor preserve a clean marriage, but one kills another through envy, or grieves him by adultery.

25 And all things are mixed together: blood, murder, theft and fraud, corruption and infidelity, disturbances and perjury, disorder within good things,

26 forgetfulness of God, pollution of souls, alteration of procreation, inconstancy of marriage, unnatural adultery and homosexuality.

27 For the worship of unspeakable idols is the cause, and the beginning and the end, of all evil.

28 For they either act with madness while happy, or they insistently speak wild lies, or they live unjustly, or they are quick to commit perjury.

29 For, while they trust in idols, which are without a soul, vowing evil, they hope not to be harmed themselves.

30 Therefore, from both sides it will fittingly happen, because they have thought evil of God, paying attention to idols, and because they have sworn unjustly, in guile despising justice.

31 For swearing is not virtue, but sinning always comes around to a punishment according to the transgression of the unjust.

1 But you, our God, are gracious and true, patient, and in mercy ordering all things.

2 And, indeed, if we sin, we are yours, knowing your greatness; and, if we do not sin, we know that we are counted with you.

3 For to have known you is perfect justice, and to know justice and your virtue is the root of immortality.

4 For the skillful planning of evil men has not led us into error, nor the shadow of a picture, a fruitless labor, an image having been sculpted through the use of diverse colors,

5 the sight of which gives desire to the foolish, and he loves the likeness of a lifeless image without a soul.

6 Deserving are the lovers of evil, those who hope in such things, and those who make them, and those who love them, and those who promote them.

7 But even the potter, pressing laboriously, molds the soft earth into vessels, each one for our use. And from the same clay he molds vessels, those which are for clean use, and similarly, those which are for the opposite. But, as to what is the use of a vessel, the potter is the judge.

8 And with effort he molds an empty god of the same clay, he who a little before had been made from the earth, and, after brief time, he himself returns from whence he came, to be claimed by he who holds the debt of his soul.

9 Yet his concern is, not what his work will be, nor that his life is short, but that he is being contested by those who work with gold and silver, yet he also does the same to those who work with copper, and he glories that he makes worthless things.

10 For his heart is ashes, and his hope is worthless dirt, and his life is more common than clay,

11 because he ignores the One who molded him, and who instilled in him a working soul, and who breathed into him a living spirit.

12 Yet they even considered our life to be a plaything, and the usefulness of life to be the accumulation of wealth, and that we must be acquiring things in every possible way, even from evil.

13 For, above all else, he knows himself to be lacking, who, from fragile material of the earth forms vessels and graven images.

14 For all the foolish and unhappy, in charge of the way of the arrogant soul, are enemies of your people and rule over them,

15 because they have esteemed all the idols of the nations as gods, which neither have the use of eyes to see, nor noses to draw breath, nor ears to hear, nor the fingers of hands to grasp, and even their feet are slow to walk.

16 For man made them, and he who borrowed his own breath, formed them. For no man will be able to form God in the likeness of himself.

17 For, being mortal, he forms a dead thing with his unjust hands. Yet, he is better than those things that he worships, because he indeed has lived, though he is mortal, but they never have.

18 Moreover, they worship the most miserable animals, for, to make a foolish comparison, these others are worse.

19 But not even from their appearance can anyone discern anything good in these animals. Yet they have fled from the praise of God, and from his blessing.

1 Because of this, and by means of things similar to these, they were allowed to endure fitting torments, and they were exterminated by a multitude of beasts.

2 Instead of these torments, you administered your people kindly, giving them a desire for a new taste from your delights, and preparing quails for their food,

3 so that, even those desiring food, because of those things which were sent and revealed to them, were now turned away from a necessary desire. Yet these, after a brief time, having become weak, tasted a new food.

4 For it was necessary, though they are without excuse, for them to unexpectedly come upon the ruin of exercising tyranny, yet this was as if to show them how their enemies were being exterminated.

5 And so, when fierce beasts overcame them in anger, they were exterminated by the bites of perverse snakes.

6 But your anger did not continue forever, though they were troubled for a short time for their correction, they have a sign of salvation as a remembrance of the commandment of your law.

7 For he who turned to it was not healed by what he saw, but by you, the Savior of all.

8 Yet in this you revealed to our enemies that you are he who delivers from all evil.

9 For they were killed by the biting of locusts and flies, and there was found no remedy for their life, because they deserved to be destroyed by such things.

10 But not even the teeth of venomous serpents conquered your sons, for your mercy came to them and healed them.

11 For, in remembrance of your words, they were examined and were quickly saved, for forgetfulness is not engraved into your altar so that they would be unable to obtain your help.

12 And, indeed, neither an herb, nor a poultice, healed them, but your word, O Lord, which heals all.

13 For it is you, O Lord, who holds the power of life and death; you both lead to the threshold of death and you restore.

14 Yet man, indeed, kills his own soul through malice, and when his spirit goes forth, it will not be returned, nor will he call back his soul when it has been received.

15 But it is impossible to escape your hand.

16 For the impious, having refused to know you, have been scourged by the strength of your arm, enduring persecution by unusual waters, and by hailstorms, and by rain storms, and being consumed by fire.

17 For there was something extraordinary in water, which extinguishes all things; it has prevailed more than fire; for the world is the defender of the just.

18 Indeed, at a certain time, the fire was subdued, so as not to burn away the animals, which were sent against the impious; and so that, in seeing this, they might know that they are suffering persecution by the judgment of God.

19 And, at another time, fire burned, beyond its own power, in the midst of water, and it flared up from all around, so as to destroy the nations of an unjust land.

20 Instead of these things, you nourished your people with the food of angels, and, having prepared bread from heaven, you served them without labor that which holds within itself every delight and the sweetness of every flavor.

21 For your nature showed your sweetness, which you hold within your sons, and serving the will of each one, it was converted to what each one preferred.

22 But snow and ice held back the strength of fire, and did not melt, so that they might know that fire, burning in the hail and flashing in the rain, destroyed the fruits of the enemies.

23 Yet it was also the case, so that the just might be nourished, that fire had even been deprived of its own power.

24 For the creature serving you, the Creator, grows red hot in the midst of the conflict against the unjust, and yet it subsides for the benefit of those who trust in you.

25 Because of this, and at that time, having been transfigured in all things, your grace was diligently serving as the nursemaid of all things, according to the will of those who long for you,

26 so that your sons, whom you loved, O Lord, might know that it is not the fruits of nature which feed men, but your word, which preserves those who believe in you.

27 For that which could not be destroyed by fire, was immediately melted when warmed by a few rays of the sun,

28 so that it might be clear to all that it is right to come before the sun to bless you, and to adore you at the dawning of the light.

29 For the hope of the ungrateful will melt away like the winter’s ice and will disperse like overflowing water.

1 For your judgments, O Lord, are great, and your words are indescribable. Therefore, undisciplined souls have wandered astray.

2 For, while they managed to convince the unjust, so as to obtain dominion over the holy nation, they themselves were fettered with chains of darkness and of endless night, enclosed in their houses, fugitives of everlasting providence, lying in ruins.

3 And, while they thought to escape notice in their secret sins, they were scattered under a dark veil of oblivion, being horribly afraid, and having been disturbed with great astonishment.

4 For neither did the cave which enclosed them preserve them from fear, because descending noises disturbed them, and the sorrowful persons appearing to them intensified their fear.

5 And, indeed, even fire had no strength to provide them light, nor could the clear flames of the stars illuminate that horrible night.

6 Yet there appeared to them a sudden fire, filled with fear; and, having been struck with the fear of that face which is unseen, they considered those things which they did see to be worse,

7 and, having been ridiculed, the illusions were removed from their arts along with their contemptuous rebuke of glorious wisdom.

8 Indeed, those who promised to drive away fears and disturbances from a languishing soul, though they were filled with derision, were themselves languishing in fear.

9 And, even if nothing unnatural disturbed them, yet being agitated by the passing of animals and the hissing of snakes, they died of fear, denying what they themselves saw even in the air, which no one thinks to be able to escape.

10 For, while there may be apprehension with wickedness, it gives testimony to condemnation, for a troubled conscience always forecasts harshness.

11 For fear is nothing else but unfaithfulness to thinking helpful things.

12 And, while expectation is driven from within, the cause of this is supposing that one is great in knowledge, and as a result, conflict excels.

13 Yet those who were truly powerless that night, being overcome by both the vilest and the deepest hell, were sleeping the same sleep,

14 sometimes stirred up by the fear of unnatural things, other times sinking down in disgrace of soul, for a sudden and unexpected fear overcame them.

15 Then, if any among them had fallen away, he was kept in a prison without bars which had been left open.

16 For if a farmer, or a shepherd, or a worker in a field of labor were suddenly overcome, he endured an inescapable necessity.

17 For they were all bound together with one chain of darkness. Or if there were a whistling wind, or the sweet sound of birds among the thick tree branches, or the force of water rushing excessively,

18 or the strong noise of rocks crashing down, or the scattering of playful animals having been seen, or the strong voice of bellowing beasts, or the resounding of the highest mountain echo, these things made them sink down because of fear.

19 For the whole world was enlightened with a clear light, and none were being hindered in their labors.

20 But then, the heavy night was placed over the sun for them, an image of that darkness which was about to overcome them. Yet they were more grievous to themselves than was the darkness.

1 But your saints were your greatest light, and they heard your voice, but did not see your form. And because they themselves did not also suffer the same things, they praised you greatly.

2 And those who were wounded before, gave thanks, because they were no longer being wounded, and because they had petitioned for this gift, that there would be this difference.

3 Because of this, they had a burning column of fire as a guide on the unknown way, and you displayed a harmless sun of a good hospitality.

4 The others, indeed, deserved to be deprived of the light and to endure a prison of darkness, who watched for an opportunity to imprison your sons, by whom the incorruptible light of the law was beginning to be given to future generations.

5 When they thought to kill the babes of the just, one son having been exposed and set free, to their disgrace, you took away a multitude of their sons and destroyed them all together in a mighty water.

6 For that night was known beforehand by our fathers, so that, knowing the truth of the oaths in which they had trusted, they might be more peaceful in their souls.

7 Yet your people received not only the salvation of the just, but also the destruction of the unjust.

8 For just as you wounded our adversaries, so also did you greatly esteem calling us forth.

9 For the just children of goodness were secretly offering sacrifice, and in agreement they administered the law of justice, so that both good and bad would be able to receive justice, and so that you might now approve of their chanting to the father.

10 On the other hand, a dissimilar voice was resounding from the enemies, and a lamentable wailing was heard for the children who were being cried over.

11 But the same punishment afflicted the servant with the master, and the common man endured the same as the king.

12 Therefore, all were the same, with one name for death, and the dead were innumerable. For neither were the living sufficient to bury the dead, because, with a single effort, their most illustrious nation was exterminated.

13 For they would not believe anything because of the drugs; then truly, at the beginning, when the extermination of the firstborn happened, they pledged the people to belong to God.

14 For, when a quiet silence surrounded all things, and when the course of the night was passing the middle of its journey,

15 your almighty word from heaven leapt down from your royal throne, as a fierce warrior in the midst of the land of extermination,

16 as a sharp sword carrying your unfeigned authority, and standing, filled all things with death, and, standing on the earth, reached all the way up to touch heaven.

17 Then, incessant visions of nightmares disturbed them, and unexpected fears overcame them.

18 And another was thrown down elsewhere half-alive; and so, by means of that which was dying, the cause of death was revealed.

19 For the visions that disturbed them had forewarned of these things, lest they should perish and not know why they suffered these evils.

20 Yet, at that time, the trial of death touched even the just, and there was a disturbance of the multitude in the wilderness, but your wrath did not continue for long.

21 For a blameless man, prospering, is to be entreated for your people, bringing forth the shield of your service, through prayer and incense, making prayerful supplication, he withstands anger, and so establishes an end to the necessary difficulty, revealing that he is your servant.

22 Yet he outlasted the disturbance, not by virtue of the body, nor by force of arms, but, with a word, he subdued those who were troubling him, commemorating the oaths and covenant of the parents.

23 For when they were now fallen down dead by heaps one upon another, he stood between them and cut off their attack, and he divided those who controlled the path to the living.

24 For, within the garment of shame which he held, the world was all together, and the great deeds of the parents were engraved on four orders of stones, and your majesty was engraved on the crown of his head.

25 Yet he who was exterminating yielded even to those he frightened. For one trial of wrath was sufficient.

1 But the impious, all the way to the very end, were overcome by anger without mercy. Indeed, he knew beforehand even their future.

2 Yet, seeing that they might have repented, so that they would be led by him and be sent forth with great concern, the just sought the impious, while regretting their deeds.

3 For, while the just were still holding grief in their hands and weeping at the tombs of the dead, these others took upon themselves another senseless thought, and they cast out the legislators and pursued them as if they were fugitives.

4 For a fitting necessity was leading them to this end, and they were losing the remembrance of those things which had happened, so that what was lacking in the sufferings of the conflict might be completed by the punishment,

5 and so that your people, indeed, might wonderfully pass through, but these others might find a new death.

6 For every creature according to its kind was fashioned again as from the beginning, diligently serving your teachings, so that your children would be preserved unharmed.

7 For a cloud overshadowed their camp, and where water was before, dry land appeared, and in the Red Sea, a way without hindrance, and out of the great deep, a level field sprung up,

8 through which the whole nation passed, protected by your hand, seeing your miracles and wonders.

9 For they consumed food like horses, and they leapt about like lambs, praising you, O Lord, who had freed them.

10 For they were still mindful of those things which had happened during the time of their sojourn, how, instead cattle, the earth brought forth flies, and instead of fish, the river cast up a multitude of frogs.

11 And, lastly, they saw a new kind of bird, when, being led by their desire, they demanded a feast of meat.

12 For, to console their loss, the quail came up to them from the sea, and yet troubles overcame the sinners, though they were not without the evidence of what had happened before by the power of lightning, for they suffered justly according to their own wickedness.

13 And indeed, they set up a more detestable inhospitality. Certainly, some have refused to receive unknown foreigners, but these others were drafting good guests into servitude,

14 and not only foreigners, but also those who had been under their care, because they were reluctantly sheltering the outsiders.

15 Yet whoever had sheltered them with gladness, by making use of the very same justice, they afflicted with the most severe sorrow.

16 Yet they were struck with blindness, like someone brought before the gates of justice, so that they were suddenly covered with darkness, and each one was left searching for the threshold of his front door.

17 For the elements in themselves are in the process of being changed, just as when the sound of a musical instrument is being altered in quality, yet each one keeps its own sound, from where it is considered to be and according to its fixed appearance.

18 For the countryside was transformed by water, and things which were swimming, crossed over the land.

19 Fire prevailed in the midst of water, beyond its own power, and the water forgot its quenching nature.

20 On the other hand, the flames did not trouble the bodies of the mortal animals walking around, nor did they melt that good food, which is as easily melted as ice. For in all things, O Lord, you magnified your people, and honored them, and did not despise them, but at every time and in every place, you assisted them.