Texts in Conversation
Deuteronomy describes Israel’s wilderness journey as a time of testing through hardship, designed to reveal whether the people would remain obedient to the Torah. Wisdom of Solomon echoes this theme, portraying the trials of the righteous as tests that refine and prove their faithfulness.
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Deuteronomy 8:2
Hebrew Bible
1 You must keep carefully all these commandments I am giving you today so that you may live, increase in number, and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. 2 Remember the whole way by which he has brought you these 40 years through the wilderness so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not. 3 So he humbled you by making you hungry and then feeding you with unfamiliar manna. He did this to teach you that humankind cannot live by bread alone, but also by everything that comes from the Lord’s mouth. 4 Your clothing did not wear out nor did your feet swell all these 40 years.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Wisdom of Solomon 3:5
Deuterocanon
3 and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace. 4 For though in the sight of others they were punished, their hope is full of immortality. 5 Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself; 6 like gold in the furnace he tried them, and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them. 7 In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble.
Date: 100-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Compare with Exodus 16:4; Deuteronomy 8:16; Psalm 26:2; Proverbs 3:11; Sirach 2:1-5; 1 Enoch 108:9: 'And the Lord tried them and their spirits were found pure'; Psalms of Solomon 10:1-2; 2 Enoch 49:2 ... For suffering as discipline, see the Elihu speeches in Job 32-37 ..."
Winston, David
The Wisdom of Solomon: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
(p. 127) Doubleday, 1979
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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