Wisdom of Solomon 15:1-16:14
1 But You, our God, are kind, true, patient,
And govern all things in mercy.
2 For even if we sin, we belong to You and know Your might;
But we will not sin,
Because we know that we are counted as belonging to You.
3 For to know You is complete righteousness,
And to know Your might is the root of immortality.
4 For neither have the evil practices of human art deceived us,
Nor a form stained with diverse colors,
The barren labor of painting,
5 Whose appearance creates a desire in fools
That longs for the lifeless form of a dead image.
6 Lovers of evil things and fit for such objects of hope
Are those who either make or desire or worship them.
Idols of Clay
7 For even when a potter compresses soft earth,
He laboriously forms each vessel for our service;
But he models from the same clay
Both vessels that serve clean uses and likewise those to the contrary.
But what will be the function of one or the other
Is the decision of the craftsman.
8 So, working evil, he forms a worthless god from the same clay,
He who a little while before was made from the earth
And in a short while returns to the earth from which he was taken,
When the soul that was loaned to him
Is demanded in return at death.
9 But he is not concerned that he is about to be sick
Or that his life will be ending shortly;
So he competes with goldsmiths and melters of silver
And imitates bronze-workers;
And he considers it a glory that he forms false gods.
10 His heart is ashes, and his hope as cheap as dirt;
And his life is more dishonored than his clay,
11 Because he disregards the One who formed him,
And who inspired him with an operative soul,
And breathed into him a life-giving spirit.
12 But he considered our life to be a plaything
And life a festival held for profit;
For he says, “One must make a living however one can,
Even by evil means.”
13 For this man, more than all others, knows that he sins
When he fabricates from earthly matter
Easily broken vessels and carved images.
The Egyptian Enemies
14 Yet more foolish and infantile are the enemies
Who oppressed Your people,
15 Because they thought that all the idols of the nations were gods,
Though these have neither the use of their eyes for vision,
Nor noses for inhaling air,
Nor ears to hear with,
Nor fingers on their hands for touching;
And their feet are useless for walking.
16 For a man made them,
And he whose spirit is borrowed formed them;
For no man can form a god like himself.
17 A man who works a dead thing with lawless hands is mortal,
For he is better than his objects of worship,
Because he is alive, but they never are.
18 The enemies of Your people worship the most hateful animals,
For they are worse than all others in stupidity.
19 Not even as animals are they so beautiful in appearance
That one would desire them,
But they escaped both the praise of God and His blessing.
1 Therefore they were worthily punished through creatures like these,
And were tormented through a multitude of wild animals.
2 Instead of such punishment You showed kindness to Your people
And prepared quails as food with a delicious taste to satisfy their hunger,
3 That those men, when they desired food,
Might turn away their necessary hunger
Because of the ugly look of the creatures sent upon them,
While Your people, being in need for a brief period,
Might partake of food with a delicious taste.
4 For it was necessary for those enemies
That unavoidable need come upon them and tyrannize them,
While to Your people it was only shown
How their enemies were being tormented.
5 For even when the terrible rage of wild animals
Came upon Your people,
And they were being destroyed by the bites of twisting serpents,
Your wrath did not continue to the end.
6 They were troubled for a short while as a warning,
And received a pledge of salvation
In remembrance of Your law’s command.
7 For the one who turned to it was saved, not by what he saw,
But by You, the Savior of all.
8 So in this You persuaded our enemies
That You are the One who saves from every evil.
9 For the bites of locusts and flies killed them,
And no healing was found for their life,
Because they deserved to be punished by such things.
10 But the teeth of poisonous serpents
Did not overcome Your children,
For Your mercy came to their aid and healed them.
11 For they were goaded to remind them of Your oracles
And were quickly saved,
Lest they should fall into deep forgetfulness
And be continually unmindful of Your kindness.
12 For neither herb nor medicinal plaster healed them,
But it was Your word, O Lord, which heals all men.
13 For You have authority over life and death,
And bring men down to the gates of Hades
And lead them back again.
14 A man in his malice kills another,
But he cannot bring back a departed spirit
Nor return a soul that is taken.
Psalm 60
1 For the End; in hymns; by David.
2 Hear my supplication, O God;
Attend to my prayer.
3 From the end of the earth I cried out to You
When my heart was discouraged;
You lifted me high on a rock.
4 You guided me, for You became my hope,
A tower of strength from the face of the enemy.
5 I will dwell in Your tabernacle unto the ages;
I will be covered with the shelter of Your wings.
(Pause)
6 For You, O God, hear my prayers;
You give an inheritance to those who fear Your name.
7 You will add days to the days of the king,
His years as the days of generation to generation.
8 He will abide before God forever;
Who will seek out His mercy and truth?
9 So I will sing praise to Your name unto ages of ages,
That I may pay my vows day to day.
Proverbs 12:16–20
16 By the fruits of his mouth, the soul of a man will be filled with good things,
And the recompense of his lips will be given to him.
17 The ways of undiscerning men are right in their own eyes,
But a wise man hearkens to counsels.
18 A man without discernment immediately proclaims his wrath,
But an astute man hides his own dishonor.
19 A righteous man declares his honesty openly,
But the witness of the unrighteous is deceitful.
20 There are those who wound with a sword as they speak,
But the tongues of the wise heal.
1 Corinthians 15:35–58
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?”
36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.
37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain.
38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.
43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
Our Final Victory
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.