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Wisdom 12
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Chapter 12
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you whose imperishable spirit is in all.
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Little by little, therefore, you correct those who offend, you admonish and remind them of how they have sinned, so that they may abstain from evil and trust in you, Lord.
God’s forbearance with Canaan
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The ancient inhabitants of your holy land
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you hated for their loathsome practices, their deeds of sorcery and unholy rites,
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hated as ruthless murderers of children, as eaters of entrails at feasts of human flesh, initiated while the bloody orgy goes on,[*a]
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as murderous parents of defenceless beings. You determined to destroy them at our fathers’ hands,
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so that this land, dearer to you than any other, might receive a colony of God’s children worthy of it.
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Even so, since these were men, you treated them leniently, sending hornets as forerunners of your army, to destroy them bit by bit.
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Not that you could not hand the godless over to the virtuous in pitched battle or destroy them at once by savage beasts or one stern word from you;
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but, by condemning them piece by piece, you gave them the chance to repent, although you knew very well they were inherently evil, innately wicked
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and fixed in their cast of mind; for they were a race accursed from the beginning.
Nor was it from awe of anyone that you left them unpunished
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for their sins. Who would venture to say, ‘What have you done?’ Who would dare to defy your sentence? Who arraign you for destroying nations which you have created? What champion of guilty men dare come to confront you and challenge you?
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For there is no god, other than you, who cares for every thing, to whom you might have to prove that you never judged unjustly;
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as for those you punished, no king, no despot, dare reproach you with it to your face.
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Being just yourself, you order all things justly, holding it unworthy of your power to condemn a man who has not deserved to be punished.
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Your justice has its source in strength, your sovereignty over all makes you lenient to all.
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You show your strength when your sovereign power is questioned and you expose the insolence of those who know it;
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but, disposing of such strength, you are mild in judgement, you govern us with great lenience, for you have only to will, and your power is there.
What is to be learned from God’s forbearance
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By acting thus you have taught a lesson to your people how the virtuous man must be kindly to his fellow men, and you have given your sons the good hope that after sin you will grant repentance.
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If with such care and such indulgence you have punished the enemies of your children, when death was what they deserved, and given them time and room to rid themselves of wickedness,
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with what exact attention have you not judged your sons, to whose ancestors you made such fair promises by oaths and covenants.
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Thus, while you correct us, you flog our enemies ten thousand times harder, to teach us, when we judge, to reflect on your kindness and when we are judged, to look for mercy.
God follows clemency with severity
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This is why, against those who were leading wicked and foolish lives, you turned their own abominations[*b] to torment them;
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they had indeed strayed too far from paths that strayed already, and came to regard the vilest, most contemptible animals as gods, being deceived, like silly little children.
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So, as to children with no sense, you sent them a punishment to mock them,
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but they who took no warning from such mocking correction were soon to experience a punishment worthy of God.
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Worn down by what they suffered from these beasts, those beasts they had taken for gods, now the means of their punishment, they saw straight, and acknowledged as true God him they had hitherto refused to know. That is why the extreme penalty was inflicted on them.
Chapters of Wisdom
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
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