7 I also am mortal, like all men,
a descendant of the first-formed child of earth;
and in the womb of a mother I was molded into flesh,
² within the period of ten months, compacted with blood,
from the seed of a man and the pleasure of marriage.
³ And when I was born, I began to breathe the common air,
and fell upon the kindred earth,
and my first sound was a cry, like that of all.
⁴ I was nursed with care in swaddling cloths.
⁵ For no king has had a different beginning of existence;
⁶ there is for all mankind one entrance into life, and a common departure.

⁷ Therefore I prayed, and understanding was given me;
I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
⁸ I preferred her to scepters and thrones,
and I accounted wealth as nothing in comparison with her.
⁹ Neither did I liken to her any priceless gem,
because all gold is but a little sand in her sight,
and silver will be accounted as clay before her.
¹⁰ I loved her more than health and beauty,
and I chose to have her rather than light,
because her radiance never ceases.
¹¹ All good things came to me along with her,
and in her hands uncounted wealth.
¹² I rejoiced in them all, because wisdom leads them;
but I did not know that she was their mother.
¹³ I learned without guile and I impart without grudging;
I do not hide her wealth,
¹⁴ for it is an unfailing treasure for men;
those who get it obtain friendship with God,
commended for the gifts that come from instruction.

¹⁵ May God grant that I speak with judgment
and have thoughts worthy of what I have received,
for he is the guide even of wisdom
and the corrector of the wise.
¹⁶ For both we and our words are in his hand,
as are all understanding and skill in crafts.
¹⁷ For it is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists,
to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements;
¹⁸ the beginning and end and middle of times,
the alternations of the solstices and the changes of the seasons,
¹⁹ the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars,
²⁰ the natures of animals and the tempers of wild beasts,
the powers of spirits^[a] and the reasonings of men,
the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots;
²¹ I learned both what is secret and what is manifest,
²² for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me.

For in her there is a spirit that is intelligent, holy,
unique, manifold, subtle,
mobile, clear, unpolluted,
distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen,
irresistible, ²³ beneficent, humane,
steadfast, sure, free from anxiety,
all-powerful, overseeing all,
and penetrating through all spirits
that are intelligent and pure and most subtle.
²⁴ For wisdom is more mobile than any motion;
because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things.
²⁵ For she is a breath of the power of God,
and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;
therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.
²⁶ For she is a reflection of eternal light,
a spotless mirror of the working of God,
and an image of his goodness.
²⁷ Though she is but one, she can do all things,
and while remaining in herself, she renews all things;
in every generation she passes into holy souls
and makes them friends of God, and prophets;
²⁸ for God loves nothing so much as the man who lives with wisdom.
²⁹ For she is more beautiful than the sun,
and excels every constellation of the stars.
Compared with the light she is found to be superior,
³⁰ for it is succeeded by the night,
but against wisdom evil does not prevail.

17 Great are thy judgments and hard to describe;
therefore uninstructed souls have gone astray.
² For when lawless men supposed that they held the holy nation in their power,
they themselves lay as captives of darkness and prisoners of long night,
shut in under their roofs, exiles from eternal providence.
³ For thinking that in their secret sins they were unobserved
behind a dark curtain of forgetfulness,
they were scattered, terribly^[a] alarmed,
and appalled by specters.
⁴ For not even the inner chamber that held them protected them from fear,
but terrifying sounds rang out around them,
and dismal phantoms with gloomy faces appeared.
⁵ And no power of fire was able to give light,
nor did the brilliant flames of the stars
avail to illumine that hateful night.
⁶ Nothing was shining through to them
except a dreadful, self-kindled fire,
and in terror they deemed the things which they saw
to be worse than that unseen appearance.
⁷ The delusions of their magic art lay humbled,
and their boasted wisdom was scornfully rebuked.
⁸ For those who promised to drive off the fears and disorders of a sick soul
were sick themselves with ridiculous fear.
⁹ For even if nothing disturbing frightened them,
yet, scared by the passing of beasts and the hissing of serpents,
¹⁰ they perished in trembling fear,
refusing to look even at the air, though it nowhere could be avoided.
¹¹ For wickedness is a cowardly thing, condemned by its own testimony;^[b]
distressed by conscience, it has always exaggerated^[c] the difficulties.
¹² For fear is nothing but surrender of the helps that come from reason;
¹³ and the inner expectation of help, being weak,
prefers ignorance of what causes the torment.
¹⁴ But throughout the night, which was really powerless,
and which beset them from the recesses of powerless Hades,
they all slept the same sleep,
¹⁵ and now were driven by monstrous specters,
and now were paralyzed by their souls’ surrender,
for sudden and unexpected fear overwhelmed them.
¹⁶ And whoever was there fell down,
and thus was kept shut up in a prison not made of iron;
¹⁷ for whether he was a farmer or a shepherd
or a workman who toiled in the wilderness,
he was seized, and endured the inescapable fate;
for with one chain of darkness they all were bound.
¹⁸ Whether there came a whistling wind,
or a melodious sound of birds in wide-spreading branches,
or the rhythm of violently rushing water,
¹⁹ or the harsh crash of rocks hurled down,
or the unseen running of leaping animals,
or the sound of the most savage roaring beasts,
or an echo thrown back from a hollow of the mountains,
it paralyzed them with terror.
²⁰ For the whole world was illumined with brilliant light,
and was engaged in unhindered work,
²¹ while over those men alone heavy night was spread,
an image of the darkness that was destined to receive them;
but still heavier than darkness were they to themselves.

18 But for thy holy ones there was very great light.
Their enemies^[d] heard their voices but did not see their forms,
and counted them happy for not having suffered,
² and were thankful that thy holy ones,^[e] though previously wronged, were doing them no injury;
and they begged their pardon for having been at variance with them.^[f]
3 Therefore thou didst provide a flaming pillar of fire
as a guide for thy people’s^[g] unknown journey,
and a harmless sun for their glorious wandering.
⁴ For their enemies^[h] deserved to be deprived of light and imprisoned in darkness,
those who had kept thy sons imprisoned,
through whom the imperishable light of the law was to be given to the world.

⁵ When they had resolved to kill the babes of thy holy ones,
and one child had been exposed and rescued,
thou didst in punishment take away a multitude of their children;
and thou didst destroy them all together by a mighty flood.
⁶ That night was made known beforehand to our fathers,
so that they might rejoice in sure knowledge of the oaths in which they trusted.
⁷ The deliverance of the righteous and the destruction of their enemies
were expected by thy people.
⁸ For by the same means by which thou didst punish our enemies
thou didst call us to thyself and glorify us.
⁹ For in secret the holy children of good men offered sacrifices,
and with one accord agreed to the divine law,
that the saints would share alike the same things,
both blessings and dangers;
and already they were singing the praises of the fathers.^[i]
10 But the discordant cry of their enemies echoed back,
and their piteous lament for their children was spread abroad.
¹¹ The slave was punished with the same penalty as the master,
and the common man suffered the same loss as the king;
¹² and they all together, by the one form of death,
had corpses too many to count.
For the living were not sufficient even to bury them,
since in one instant their most valued children had been destroyed.
¹³ For though they had disbelieved everything because of their magic arts,
yet, when their first-born were destroyed, they acknowledged thy people to be God’s son.
¹⁴ For while gentle silence enveloped all things,
and night in its swift course was now half gone,
¹⁵ thy all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne,
into the midst of the land that was doomed,
a stern warrior ¹⁶ carrying the sharp sword of thy authentic command,
and stood and filled all things with death,
and touched heaven while standing on the earth.
¹⁷ Then at once apparitions in dreadful dreams greatly troubled them,
and unexpected fears assailed them;
¹⁸ and one here and another there, hurled down half dead,
made known why they were dying;
¹⁹ for the dreams which disturbed them forewarned them of this,
so that they might not perish without knowing why they suffered.

²⁰ The experience of death touched also the righteous,
and a plague came upon the multitude in the desert,
but the wrath did not long continue.
²¹ For a blameless man was quick to act as their champion;
he brought forward the shield of his ministry,
prayer and propitiation by incense;
he withstood the anger and put an end to the disaster,
showing that he was thy servant.
²² He conquered the wrath^[j] not by strength of body,
and not by force of arms,
but by his word he subdued the punisher,
appealing to the oaths and covenants given to our fathers.
²³ For when the dead had already fallen on one another in heaps,
he intervened and held back the wrath,
and cut off its way to the living.
²⁴ For upon his long robe the whole world was depicted,
and the glories of the fathers were engraved on the four rows of stones,
and thy majesty on the diadem upon his head.
²⁵ To these the destroyer yielded, these he^[k] feared;
for merely to test the wrath was enough.

19 But the ungodly were assailed to the end by pitiless anger,
for God^[l] knew in advance even their future actions,
² that, though they themselves had permitted^[m] thy people to depart
and hastily sent them forth,
they would change their minds and pursue them.
³ For while they were still busy at mourning,
and were lamenting at the graves of their dead,
they reached another foolish decision,
and pursued as fugitives those whom they had begged and compelled to depart.
⁴ For the fate they deserved drew them on to this end,
and made them forget what had happened,
in order that they might fill up the punishment which their torments still lacked,
⁵ and that thy people might experience^[n] an incredible journey,
but they themselves might meet a strange death.

⁶ For the whole creation in its nature was fashioned anew,
complying with thy commands,
that thy children^[o] might be kept unharmed.
⁷ The cloud was seen overshadowing the camp,
and dry land emerging where water had stood before,
an unhindered way out of the Red Sea,
and a grassy plain out of the raging waves,
⁸ where those protected by thy hand passed through as one nation,
after gazing on marvelous wonders.
⁹ For they ranged like horses,
and leaped like lambs,
praising thee, O Lord, who didst deliver them.
¹⁰ For they still recalled the events of their sojourn,
how instead of producing animals the earth brought forth gnats,
and instead of fish the river spewed out vast numbers of frogs.
¹¹ Afterward they saw also a new kind^[p] of birds,
when desire led them to ask for luxurious food;
¹² for, to give them relief, quails came up from the sea.

¹³ The punishments did not come upon the sinners
without prior signs in the violence of thunder,
for they justly suffered because of their wicked acts;
for they practiced a more bitter hatred of strangers.
¹⁴ Others had refused to receive strangers when they came to them,
but these made slaves of guests who were their benefactors.
¹⁵ And not only so, but punishment of some sort will come upon the former
for their hostile reception of the aliens;
¹⁶ but the latter, after receiving them with festal celebrations,
afflicted with terrible sufferings
those who had already shared the same rights.
¹⁷ They were stricken also with loss of sight—
just as were those at the door of the righteous man—
when, surrounded by yawning darkness,
each tried to find the way through his own door.

¹⁸ For the elements changed^[q] places with one another,
as on a harp the notes vary the nature of the rhythm,
while each note remains the same.^[r]
This may be clearly inferred from the sight of what took place.
¹⁹ For land animals were transformed into water creatures,
and creatures that swim moved over to the land.
²⁰ Fire even in water retained its normal power,
and water forgot its fire-quenching nature.
²¹ Flames, on the contrary, failed to consume
the flesh of perishable creatures that walked among them,
nor did they melt^[s] the crystalline, easily melted kind of heavenly food.

²² For in everything, O Lord, thou hast exalted and glorified thy people;
and thou hast not neglected to help them at all times and in all places.