God’s Punishment of Sinners

¹ Do not desire a multitude of useless children or rejoice in ungodly sons.

² If they multiply, do not rejoice in them unless the fear of the Lord is with them.

³ Do not trust in their life and do not rely on their multitude; for one is better than a thousand, and to die childless is better than to have ungodly children.

⁴ For through one person of understanding a city will be filled with people, but through a tribe of lawless people it will be made desolate.

⁵ Many such things my eye has seen, and my ear has heard things more striking than these.

⁶ In an assembly of sinners a fire will be kindled, and in a disobedient nation wrath was kindled.

⁷ He was not propitiated for the ancient giants who revolted in their might.

⁸ He did not spare the neighbours of Lot, whom he loathed on account of their insolence.

⁹ He showed no pity for a nation devoted to destruction, for those driven out in their sins

¹⁰ or for the six hundred thousand men on foot who assembled in their hardness of heart.

¹¹ Even if there is only one stiff-necked person, it will be a wonder if he remains unpunished. For mercy and wrath are with the Lord; he is mighty to forgive, and he pours out wrath.

¹² As great as his mercy, so great is also his reproof; he will judge a man according to his deeds.

¹³ The sinner will not escape with his plunder, and the patience of the godly will never be frustrated.

¹⁴ He will make room for every act of mercy; everyone will receive in accordance with his deeds.

¹⁷ Do not say, “I shall be hidden from the Lord, and who from on high will remember me? Among so many people I shall not be known, for what is my soul in the boundless creation?

¹⁸ Behold, heaven and the highest heaven, the Abyss and the earth, will tremble at his visitation.

¹⁹ The mountains also and the foundations of the earth shake with trembling when he looks upon them,

²⁰ and no mind will reflect on these things. Who will ponder his ways?

²¹ Like a blast of wind that no person will see, so most of his works are concealed.

²² Who will announce acts of justice? Or who will await them? For the covenant is far off.”

²³ This is what one devoid of understanding thinks; and a senseless and misguided man thinks foolish things.

God’s Wisdom Seen in Creation

²⁴ Listen to me, child, and learn knowledge and pay close attention in your heart to my words.

²⁵ I will impart instruction by weight and declare knowledge accurately.

²⁶ The works of the Lord have existed from the beginning by his creation, and when he made them, he determined their divisions.

²⁷ He arranged their tasks in an eternal order and their dominion for all generations; they neither hunger nor grow weary, and they do not cease from their labours.

²⁸ They do not crowd one another aside, and they will never disobey his word.

²⁹ After this the Lord looked upon the earth and filled it with his good things;

³⁰ with all kinds of living beings he covered its sur face, and to it they return.