Anonymous (Septuagint) · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| For this reason they were justly punished by means of things like themselves, and tormented by a multitude of vermin.
2| Instead of that punishment, doing good to your people, you prepared for their desire's craving a strange food, quails, to satisfy their appetite;
3| so that those others, though desiring food, because of the loathsome look of the creatures sent among them, would turn away even from the necessary appetite, while your own people, after being in want a short while, might partake of a strange delicacy.
4| For it was fitting that inescapable want should come upon those tyrants, while to your people it need only be shown how their enemies were being tormented.
5| For indeed when the terrible fury of wild beasts came upon them, and they were being destroyed by the bites of writhing serpents, your wrath did not continue to the end;
6| but they were troubled for a short time as a warning, having a token of salvation to remind them of the command of your law;
7| for the one who turned toward it was saved not by the thing he beheld, but by you, the savior of all.
8| And in this too you persuaded our enemies that you are the one who rescues from every evil;
9| for those others were killed by the bites of locusts and flies, and no cure was found for their life, because they deserved to be punished by such creatures;
10| but your sons were not overcome even by the teeth of venomous serpents, for your mercy came to their side and healed them.
11| For they were stung as a reminder of your oracles, and were swiftly saved, so that, falling into deep forgetfulness, they might not become cut off from your beneficence.
12| For indeed neither herb nor poultice healed them, but your word, Lord, which heals all things.
13| For you have authority over life and death, and you bring down to the gates of Hades and bring back up.
14| A man, on the other hand, kills by his malice, but when the spirit has gone out it does not return, nor does he release the soul once it has been taken back.
15| But to flee your hand is impossible.
16| For the ungodly, refusing to know you, were scourged by the strength of your arm, pursued by strange rains and hailstorms and relentless downpours, and consumed by fire.
17| For, most strange of all, in the water that quenches everything the fire worked all the more powerfully, for the world fights on behalf of the righteous.
18| For at one time the flame was tamed, so that it would not burn up the creatures sent against the ungodly, but so that they themselves, seeing this, might know that they were being driven by the judgment of God;
19| and at another time, even in the midst of water, it burned beyond the very power of fire, so that it might destroy the produce of an unjust land.
20| Instead of these things you fed your people with the food of angels, and sent them ready bread from heaven without their toiling, bread having every pleasure in it and suited to every taste.
21| For your substance revealed your sweetness toward your children, and, serving the desire of the one partaking, it was transformed into whatever each one wished.
22| Yet snow and ice withstood fire and did not melt, so that they might know that fire, blazing in the hail and flashing in the rains, was destroying the fruits of the enemies;
23| but this same fire, again, so that the righteous might be fed, forgot its own power.
24| For creation, serving you who made it, strains itself for punishment against the unjust, and relaxes into kindness on behalf of those who trust in you.
25| For this reason, even then, transforming itself into all things, it served your all-nourishing gift, according to the desire of those in need;
26| so that your sons, whom you loved, Lord, might learn that it is not the varieties of crops that nourish a man, but that your word preserves those who trust in you.
27| For that which was not destroyed by fire simply melted when warmed by a brief ray of the sun,
28| so that it might be known that one must rise before the sun to give you thanks, and meet you at the dawning of the light.
29| For the hope of the ungrateful will melt like wintry frost, and flow away like useless water.