Judgment on the just and on the godless
1 Then the just man will stand with confidence
facing those who oppressed him,
making light of his labors.
2 Seeing him they will be seized with a terrible fear,
amazed to find him unexpectedly saved.
Stricken with remorse
and distress,
3 they will groan and say,
4 “He is the one we mocked,
the one we reproached, fools that we were!
We considered his life foolishness,
and his death, the supreme humiliation,
5 but see: he is counted among the children of God
and is given his lot with the holy angels!
6 How far have we wandered from the truth!
The light of the upright did not enlighten us
nor did its sun rise for us.
7 We trod the paths of injustice and death,
traveling, more than enough,
through trackless deserts,
but we were unable to know the Lord’s ways.
8 What good has our pride been?
What profit in the wealth we boasted about?
9 All that has passed away like a shadow,
like a fleeting rumor.
10 Like a ship cutting the sea,
leaving no trace of its course,
and the mark of its keel – not seen in its wake;
11 like a bird flying across the sky
leaving no trace of its flight;
it beats the light air with its pinions,
cleaving a way by the force of its wings
but without a sign of its passing;
12 or like an arrow shot at a target,
with the displaced air closing in on itself
and no one knowing what way it passed.
13 It is the same for us; scarcely born we have disappeared.
What sign of virtue are we able to show,
spent as we are in our own wickedness?”
14 The hope of the godless is like chaff blown in the wind,
like a light frost melted in the storm,
like smoke dispersed by the wind;
it fades like the memory of a guest of a single day.
15 But the upright live forever,
their reward is with the Lord,
and the Most High has them in his care.
16 This is why they receive, from the hands of the Lord,
a royal crown, a splendid diadem.
He will shelter them with his hand
and his arm will be their shield.
17 God’s jealous love will display his weapon;
he will arm all creation to punish his enemies.
18 He will put on justice as his breastplate
and right judgment as his helmet,
19 invincible holiness will be his shield,
20 implacable anger his sword,
and the universe will march with him against the foolish.
21 Well-aimed bolts of lightning will strike the target; the clouds will be a curv ed bow shooting arrows.
22 The hailstones of his fury will rain on them, the ocean will rage against them and the rivers engulf them without mercy.
23 A powerful wind will rise against them and blow them away like straw. In this way, lawlessness will bring the whole earth to ruin, and evildoing topple the thrones of the mighty.
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Comments Wisdom, Chapter 5
• 5.1 The prophets spoke of God’s judgment on many occasions, referring to a judgment on earth in which God would repay the sinner nations and groups, and redress human history.
This paragraph now speaks to us of an individual judgment after death. It insists especially on the case of martyrs: it must be said that during this epoch the memory of believers persecuted for their faith at the time of the Maccabees was still fresh. Let us not forget that if we can be at the same time Christians and at peace, in many countries our brothers and sisters suffer and often die, victims of persecutions about which the media says little.
How far have we wandered from the truth. On that day, we will not wear the mask we all have on earth, a mask which hides our hypo crisy and meanness. We will see ourselves in our naked-ness and God the Father, the Lord and Knower of all, will reward or punish us. Then the wicked will see clearly that their lives were empty: scarcely born we have disappeared. Be-fore God convicts them, they will judge themselves: their own sins will accuse them (4:20).
On the contrary, the upright will live forever; the Most High has them in his care. We can compare this with the judgment parable in Matthew 25:31, with this difference that Jesus distinguishes between those who have looked after their neighbors and those who have not, whereas here the persecutors and the persec-uted face each other. They are facing one another for judgment again after the wicked triumphed over the just.