Anonymous (Septuagint) · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| For your imperishable spirit is in all things.
2| Therefore you correct those who fall away little by little, and by reminding them of the things in which they sin you admonish them, so that once freed from wickedness they may believe in you, Lord.
3| For indeed the ancient inhabitants of your holy land
4| you hated for practicing the most hateful deeds — sorceries and unholy rites —
5| merciless killers of children, devourers of human innards, feasting on flesh and blood, initiates drawn from the very midst of their band,
6| and parents who murdered with their own hands souls without help — these you determined to wipe out through the agency of our ancestors,
7| so that the land most honored by you of all lands might receive a colony of God's children worthy of it.
8| But even these you spared as being human, and you sent hornets as forerunners of your army, to destroy them little by little —
9| not that you were unable to hand over the ungodly to the righteous in battle, or to fearsome beasts, or to wipe them out at a stroke by a stern word;
10| but judging them little by little you gave them room for repentance, though not ignorant that their origin was evil and their wickedness inborn, and that their way of thinking would never change through the ages;
11| for their seed was accursed from the beginning; nor was it out of fear of anyone that you granted them impunity for their sins.
12| For who will say, 'What have you done?' Or who will stand against your judgment? Who will bring a charge against you for nations destroyed, which you yourself made? Or who will come before you as an avenger on behalf of wrongdoers?
13| For there is no god besides you who cares for all things, that you should need to prove that you did not judge unjustly;
14| nor will any king or ruler be able to look you in the eye concerning those whom you punished.
15| Being righteous, you govern all things righteously, deeming it foreign to your power to condemn one who does not deserve punishment.
16| For your strength is the source of righteousness, and your mastery over all things makes you spare all things;
17| for you show your strength when people doubt the perfection of your power, and among those who know it you expose their insolence;
18| but you, mastering strength, judge with gentleness, and govern us with great forbearance; for the power to act is yours whenever you wish.
19| By such works you taught your people that the righteous must be kind to others, and you gave your children good hope, since you grant repentance for sins.
20| For if you punished the enemies of your children — people liable to death — with such great care and pleading, giving them time and room to be freed from their wickedness,
21| with what great exactness did you judge your own children, to whose fathers you gave oaths and covenants of good promises?
22| So when you discipline us, you scourge our enemies ten thousandfold, so that when passing judgment on others we recall your kindness, and expect compassion when we ourselves stand under judgment.
23| Hence also the unrighteous who lived out their lives in folly you tormented through their own abominations.
24| For indeed they strayed further along the roads of error than the rest, taking for gods even those creatures held in contempt among their enemies, deceived like foolish infants.
25| For this reason, as upon thoughtless children, you sent judgment on them as a mockery;
26| but those who were not disciplined by such mocking correction will experience the judgment of God in earnest.
27| For by the very things through which they were suffering and were indignant — being punished by means of those creatures they had supposed to be gods — they came to recognize as true the God they had long refused to acknowledge; and therefore the full measure of condemnation came upon them.