THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
Chapter 1
1 Love righteousness, all you who are judges of the earth.
Think of the Lord * Gr. in goodness. with a good mind.
Seek him in singleness of heart,
2 because he is found by those who don’t tempt him,
and is manifested to those who trust him.
3 For crooked thoughts separate from God.
His Power convicts when it is tested,
and exposes the foolish.
4 Because wisdom will not enter into a soul that devises evil,
nor dwell in a body that is enslaved by sin.
5 For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit,
and will depart from thoughts that are without understanding,
and will be ashamed when unrighteousness has come in.
6 For † Some authorities read the spirit of wisdom is loving to man. wisdom is a spirit who loves man,
and she will not hold a ‡ Or, reviler blasphemer guiltless for his lips;
because God bears witness of his reins,
and is a true overseer of his heart,
and a hearer of his tongue:
7 Because the spirit of the Lord has filled § Gr. the inhabited earth. the world,
and that which holds all things together knows what is said.
8 Therefore no one who utters unrighteous things will be unseen;
** Some authorities read nor indeed. neither will Justice, when it convicts, pass him by.
9 For in his counsels the ungodly will be searched out,
and the sound of his words will come to the Lord to bring his lawless deeds to conviction;
10 because a jealous ear listens to all things,
and the noise of murmurings is not hidden.
11 Beware then of unprofitable murmuring,
and keep your tongue from slander;
because no secret utterance will go on its way void,
and a lying mouth destroys a soul.
12 Don’t court not death in the error of your life;
neither draw destruction upon yourselves by the works of your hands,
13 because God didn’t make death;
neither does he delight when the living perish.
14 For he created all things that they might have being.
†† Or, all the races of creatures in the world The generative powers of the world are wholesome,
and there is no poison of destruction in them,
nor has Hades ‡‡ Or, a royal house royal dominion upon earth;
15 For righteousness is immortal,
16 but ungodly men by their hands and their words summon §§ Or, Hades Gr. him. death;
deeming him a friend they *** Or, were consumed with love of him pined away.
They made a covenant with him,
because they are worthy to belong with him.
*1:1 Gr. in goodness.
†1:6 Some authorities read the spirit of wisdom is loving to man.
‡1:6 Or, reviler
§1:7 Gr. the inhabited earth.
**1:8 Some authorities read nor indeed.
††1:14 Or, all the races of creatures in the world
‡‡1:14 Or, a royal house
§§1:16 Or, Hades Gr. him.
***1:16 Or, were consumed with love of him