Other benefits of wisdom to the people of God.
11:1. She prospered their works in the hands of the holy prophet.
The holy prophet... Moses.
11:2. They went through wildernesses that were not inhabited, and in
desert places they pitched their tents.
11:3. They stood against their enemies, and revenged themselves of their
adversaries.
Their enemies... The Amalecites.
11:4. They were thirsty, and they called upon thee, and water was given
them out of the high rock, and a refreshment of their thirst out of the
hard stone.
11:5. For by what things their enemies were punished, when their drink
failed them, while the children of Israel abounded therewith, and
rejoiced:
By what things, etc... The meaning is, that God, who wrought a miracle
to punish the Egyptians by thirst, when he turned all their waters into
blood, (at which time the Israelites, who were exempt from those
plagues, had plenty of water,) wrought another miracle in favour of his
own people in their thirst, by giving them water out of the rock.
11:6. By the same things they in their need were benefited.
11:7. For instead of a fountain of an ever running river, thou gavest
human blood to the unjust.
11:8. And whilst they were diminished for a manifest reproof of their
murdering the infants, thou gavest to thine abundant water unlooked for:
11:9. Shewing by the thirst that was then, how thou didst exalt thine,
and didst kill their adversaries.
11:10. For when they were tried, and chastised with mercy, they knew how
the wicked were judged with wrath, and tormented.
11:11. For thou didst admonish and try them as a father: but the others,
as a severe king, thou didst examine and condemn.
11:12. For whether absent or present, they were tormented alike.
11:13. For a double affliction came upon them, and a groaning for the
remembrance of things past.
11:14. For when they heard that by their punishments the others were
benefited, they remembered the Lord, wondering at the end of what was
come to pass.
By their punishments, etc... That is, that the Israelites had been
benefited and miraculously favoured in the same kind, in which they had
been punished.
11:15. For whom they scorned before, when he was thrown out at the time
of his being wickedly exposed to perish, him they admired in the end,
when they saw the event: their thirsting being unlike to that of the
just.
11:16. But for the foolish devices of their iniquity, because some being
deceived worshipped dumb serpents and worthless beasts, thou didst send
upon them a multitude of dumb beasts for vengeance:
Dumb beasts... Viz., frogs, sciniphs, flies, and locusts.
11:17. That they might know that by what things a man sinneth, by the
same also he is tormented.
11:18. For thy almighty hand, which made the world of matter without
form, was not unable to send upon them a multitude of bears, or fierce
lions,
11:19. Or unknown beasts of a new kind, full of rage; either breathing
out a fiery vapour, or sending forth a stinking smoke, or shooting
horrible sparks out of their eyes:
11:20. Whereof not only the hurt might be able to destroy them, but also
the very sight might kill them through fear.
11:21. Yea, and without these, they might have been slain with one
blast, persecuted by their own deeds, and scattered by the breath of thy
power: but thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and
weight.
11:22. For great power always belonged to thee alone: and who shall
resist the strength of thy arm?
11:23. For the whole world before thee is as the least grain of the
balance, and as a drop of the morning dew, that falleth down upon tho
earth.
11:24. But thou hast mercy upon all, because thou canst do all things,
and overlookest the sins of men for the sake of repentance.
11:25. For thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the
things which thou hast made: for thou didst not appoint, or make any
thing hating it.
11:26. And how could any thing endure, if thou wouldst not? or be
preserved, if not called by thee?
11:27. But thou sparest all: because they are thine, O Lord, who lovest
souls.