1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible
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| Wisdom 12:1 | O how good and sweet is thy Spirit, O Lord, in all things! | O how. Septuagint, "for incorruptible is thy Spirit;" which St. Athanasius (ad Serap.) adduces as a proof of the Holy Ghost's divinity. (Calmet) --- God loves the soul of man. (Grotius) |
| Wisdom 12:2 | And therefore thou chastisest them that err, by little and little: and admonishest them, and speakest to them, concerning the things wherein they offend: that leaving their wickedness, they may believe in thee, O Lord. | |
| Wisdom 12:3 | *For, those ancient inhabitants of thy holy land, whom thou didst abhor, Deuteronomy 9:3.; Deuteronomy 12:29.; Deuteronomy 18:12. | |
| Wisdom 12:4 | Because they did works hateful to thee by their sorceries, and wicked sacrifices, | |
| Wisdom 12:5 | And those merciless murderers of their own children, and eaters of men's bowels, and devourers of blood from the midst of thy consecration, | Consecration. Literally, sacrament, or land. That is, the land sacred to thee, in which thy temple was to be established, and man's redemption to be wrought. (Challoner) |
| Wisdom 12:6 | And those parents sacrificing with their own hands helpless souls, it was thy will to destroy by the hands of our parents, | |
| Wisdom 12:7 | That the land which of all is most dear to thee, might receive a worthy colony of the children of God. | |
| Wisdom 12:8 | Yet even those thou sparedst as men, and didst send wasps, forerunners of thy host, to destroy them by little and little. | Wasps. These were the auxiliaries of the Hebrews, Deuteronomy 7:20. St. James saved Nisibis from the Persian army, by praying for gnats to descend. (Theod.[Theodoret?] Philot. i.) --- The inhabitants of Belgrade incensed bees, by fire and smoke, to attack the troops of Amurath. (Bonf. 4:dec. 3.) |
| Wisdom 12:9 | Not that thou wast unable to bring the wicked under the just by war, or by cruel beasts, or with one rough word to destroy them at once: | |
| Wisdom 12:10 | *But executing thy judgments by degrees, thou gavest them place of repentance, not being ignorant that they were a wicked generation, and their malice natural, and that their thought could never be changed. Exodus 25:30.; Deuteronomy 7:22. | Natural. We are all by nature children of wrath, Ephesians 2:3. (Haydock) --- But the Chanaanites were accursed by Noe[Noah], (Genesis 9:25.) and were brought up in wickedness (Psalm 57:4.) by their parents. (St. Augustine, de Bapt. 2:8.) --- Changed. Because they would not employ well the time allowed them. (Calmet) --- By custom, malice became as it were natural, after nature was corrupted. (Worthington) |
| Wisdom 12:11 | For it was a cursed seed from the beginning: neither didst thou for fear of any one give pardon to their sins. | Pardon. Or impunity. (Calmet) --- "Thou art angry, and yet are tranquil.["] (St. Augustine, Confessions 1:4.) |
| Wisdom 12:12 | For who shall say to thee: What hast thou done? or who shall withstand thy judgment? or who shall come before thee to be a revenger of wicked men? or who shall accuse thee, if the nations perish, which thou hast made? | Done? Shall the clay say to the potter, why hast thou made me thus? (Isaias 45:9., and 64:8.) We know, that under a just God, no one is miserable, unless he deserve it, ver. 15. |
| Wisdom 12:13 | For there is no other God but thou, *who hast care of all, that thou shouldst shew that thou dost not give judgment unjustly. 1 Peter 5:7. | |
| Wisdom 12:14 | Neither shall king, nor tyrant, in thy sight enquire about them whom thou hast destroyed. | |
| Wisdom 12:15 | For so much then, as thou art just, thou orderest all things justly: thinking it not agreeable to thy power, to condemn him who deserveth not to be punished. | Punished. (St. Augustine, ep. 106.) Some have read incorrectly: "Thou condemnest him who ought not to be punished, and deemest him a stranger to thy virtue," which St. Gregory (Mor. 3:11.) explains of Jesus Christ, the victim of sinners; others, of people born in sin, (Lyranus) while some would hence prove the decree of reprobation. (Duran.) --- But it is needless to explain a text which the Greek shews to be inaccurate. (Calmet) |
| Wisdom 12:16 | For thy power is the beginning of justice: and because thou art Lord of all, thou makest thyself gracious to all. | |
| Wisdom 12:17 | For thou shewest thy power, when men will not believe thee to be absolute in power, and thou convincest the boldness of them that know thee not. | |
| Wisdom 12:18 | But thou being master of power, judgest with tranquillity, and with great favour disposest of us: for thy power is at hand when thou wilt. | |
| Wisdom 12:19 | But thou hast taught thy people by such works, that they must be just and humane, and hast made thy children to be of a good hope: because in judging, thou givest place for repentance for sins. | Hope. Under a God of such clemency, none should despair. |
| Wisdom 12:20 | For if thou didst punish the enemies of thy servants, and that deserved to die, with so great deliberation, giving them time and place whereby they might be changed from their wickedness: | |
| Wisdom 12:21 | With what circumspection hast thou judged thy own children, to whose parents thou hast sworn, and made covenants of good promises? | |
| Wisdom 12:22 | Therefore whereas thou chastisest us, thou scourgest our enemies very many ways, to the end that when we judge we may think on thy goodness: and when we are judged, we may hope for thy mercy. | |
| Wisdom 12:23 | Wherefore thou hast also greatly tormented them, who, in their life, have lived foolishly and unjustly, by the same things which they worshipped. | |
| Wisdom 12:24 | *For they went astray for a long time in the ways of error, holding those things for gods which are the most worthless among beasts, living after the manner of children without understanding. Wisdom 11:16.; Romans 1:23. | |
| Wisdom 12:25 | Therefore thou hast sent a judgment upon them, as senseless children, to mock them. | |
| Wisdom 12:26 | But they that were not amended by mockeries and reprehensions, experienced the worthy judgment of God. | |
| Wisdom 12:27 | For seeing, with indignation, that they suffered by those very things which they took for gods, when they were destroyed by the same, they acknowledged him the true God, whom in time past they denied that they knew: for which cause the end also of their condemnation came upon them. | God. Who destroyed their idols: yet they did not serve him, (Worthington) which was true of all the pagans, Romans 1:21. (Calmet) |