1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible
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| Wisdom 11:1 | She* prospered their works in the hands of the holy prophet. Exodus 16:1. | Prophet. Moses, (Challoner) by whose ministry the Hebrews were delivered, (Haydock) and governed with the utmost prudence, Numbers 12:26. (Calmet) |
| Wisdom 11:2 | They went through wildernesses that were not inhabited, and in desert places they pitched their tents. | |
| Wisdom 11:3 | *They stood against their enemies, and revenged themselves of their adversaries. Exodus 17:12. | Their enemies. The Amalecites, (Challoner) and all others, who durst attack Moses, Deuteronomy 3:1. |
| Wisdom 11:4 | *They were thirsty, and they called upon thee, and water was given them out of the high rock, and a refreshment of their thirst out of the hard stone. Numbers 20:11. | |
| Wisdom 11:5 | For by what things their enemies were punished, when their drink failed them, while the children of Israel abounded therewith, and rejoiced: | By what things, etc. The meaning is, that God, who wrought a miracle to punish the Egyptians by thirst, when he turned all their waters into blood, (at which time the Israelites, who were exempt from those plagues, had plenty of water) wrought another miracle in favour of his own people in their thirst, by giving them water out of the rock. (Challoner) --- The Egyptians were thus tormented with thirst, though so near the Nile; and the Hebrews were refreshed in a barren desert, Exodus 7:20. |
| Wisdom 11:6 | By the same things they in their need were benefited. | |
| Wisdom 11:7 | For instead of a fountain of an ever-running river, thou gavest human blood to the unjust. | River. The Nile, to which the Egyptians gave divine honours. (Calmet) --- Thou. Septuagint, "disturbed with corrupted blood, in punishment of the infanticide decree, thou gavest," etc. |
| Wisdom 11:8 | And whilst they were diminished for a manifest reproof of their murdering the infants, thou gavest to thine abundant water unlooked for: | |
| Wisdom 11:9 | Shewing by the thirst that was then, how thou didst exalt thine, and didst kill their adversaries. | |
| Wisdom 11:10 | For when they were tried, and chastised with mercy, they knew how the wicked were judged with wrath, and tormented. | |
| Wisdom 11:11 | For thou didst admonish and try them as a father: but the others, as a severe king, thou didst examine and condemn. | |
| Wisdom 11:12 | For whether absent or present, they were tormented alike. | |
| Wisdom 11:13 | For a double affliction came upon them, and a groaning for the remembrance of things past. | |
| Wisdom 11:14 | For when they heard that by their punishments the others were benefited, they remembered the Lord, wondering at the end of what was come to pass. | By their punishments, etc. That is, that the Israelites had been benefited and miraculously favoured in the same kind, in which they had been punished. (Challoner) --- Benefited. After war, peace is more agreeable. (Worthington) |
| Wisdom 11:15 | For whom they scorned before, when he was thrown out at the time of his being wickedly exposed to perish, him they admired in the end, when they saw the event: their thirsting being unlike to that of the just. | |
| Wisdom 11:16 | But for the foolish devices of their iniquity, *because some being deceived worshipped dumb serpents, and worthless beasts, thou didst send upon them a multitude of dumb beasts for vengeance: Wisdom 12:24. | Serpents. The Egyptians adored asps, and fed them at their tables, without receiving any harm. (Aelian. Hist. 17:5.) --- Dumb beasts. Viz., frogs, sciniphs, flies, and locusts. (Challoner) |
| Wisdom 11:17 | That they might know that by what things a man sinneth, by the same also he is tormented. | |
| Wisdom 11:18 | For thy almighty hand, which made the world of matter without form, was not unable to send upon them a multitude of bears, or fierce lions, | |
| Wisdom 11:19 | Or unknown beasts of a new kind, full of rage: either breathing out a fiery vapour, *or sending forth a stinking smoke, or shooting horrible sparks out of their eyes: Leviticus 26:22.; Wisdom 16:1.; Jeremias 8:17. | |
| Wisdom 11:20 | Whereof not only the hurt might be able to destroy them, but also the very sight might kill them through fear. | |
| Wisdom 11:21 | Yea, and without these, they might have been slain with one blast, persecuted by their own deeds, and scattered by the breath of thy power: but thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight. | |
| Wisdom 11:22 | For great power always belonged to thee alone: and who shall resist the strength of thy arm? | |
| Wisdom 11:23 | For the whole world before thee is as the least grain of the balance, and as a drop of the morning dew, that falleth down upon the earth. | |
| Wisdom 11:24 | But thou hast mercy upon all, because thou canst do all things, and overlookest the sins of men for the sake of repentance. | Repentance. If people neglect to reform their conduct in this world, they must expect to be treated with all severity in the other. |
| Wisdom 11:25 | For thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made: for thou didst not appoint, or make any thing hating it. | It. Sin and disorder is the work of man, deserving hatred. (Calmet) --- God created nothing evil, nor is there any but one God, as the Manichees pretended. (Worthington) |
| Wisdom 11:26 | And how could any thing endure, if thou wouldst not? or be preserved, if not called by thee. | Called. Into existence, or into its proper place, Romans 4:17. |
| Wisdom 11:27 | But thou sparest all: because they are thine, O Lord, who lovest souls. | All. Awaiting their amendment, and unwilling to destroy thy creatures, Wisdom 12:10. Hence thou didst not exterminate the Egyptians at once. (Calmet) |