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Wisdom of Solomon

About this book

Justice and the Gift of Life

Chapter 1

1 Love righteousness, all you who are judges of the earth. Think of the Lord with a good mind. Seek him in singleness of heart, 2 because he is found by those who don’t put him to the test, and is manifested to those who trust him. 3 for crooked thoughts separate from God. His Power convicts when it is tested, and exposes the foolish; 4 because wisdom will not enter into a soul that devises evil,⁠ nor dwell in a body that is enslaved by sin.⁠ 5 For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will depart from thoughts that are without understanding, and will be ashamed when unrighteousness has come in.⁠ 6 For wisdom is a spirit who loves man, and she will not hold a blasphemer guiltless for his lips, because God is witness of his inmost self,⁠ and is a true overseer of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue. 7 Because the spirit of the Lord has filled the world,⁠ and that which holds all things together knows what is said.⁠ 8 Therefore no one who utters unrighteous things will be unseen; neither will Justice, when it convicts, pass him by. 9 For in his counsels the ungodly will be searched out,⁠ and the sound of his words will come to the Lord to bring his lawless deeds to conviction; 10 because a jealous ear listens to all things, and the noise of murmurings is not hidden. 11 Beware then of unprofitable murmuring, and keep your tongue from slander; because no secret utterance will go on its way void, and a lying mouth destroys a soul.⁠ 12 Don’t court death in the error of your life. Don’t draw destruction upon yourselves by the works of your hands; 13 because God didn’t make death, neither does he delight when the living perish.⁠ 14 For he created all things that they might have being. The generative powers of the world are wholesome, and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor has Hades royal dominion upon earth;⁠ 15 for righteousness is immortal,

The Wicked Choose Death

16 but ungodly men by their hands and their words summoned death; deeming him a friend they pined away. They made a covenant with him, because they are worthy to belong with him.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 28:18 and Wisdom of Solomon 1:16

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

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Summary

Wisdom of Solomon echoes Isaiah’s “covenant with death,” where alliances built on false security are doomed to fail. Isaiah criticizes leaders who rely on foreign nations, while Wisdom reshapes it into a warning about embracing sin as if it can protect.

Passages

Isaiah 28:18

Hebrew Bible
17 I will make justice the measuring line, fairness the plumb line; hail will sweep away the unreliable refuge, the floodwaters will overwhelm the hiding place. 18 Your treaty with death will be dissolved; your agreement with Sheol will not last. When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by, you will be overrun by it. 19 Whenever it sweeps by, it will overtake you; indeed, every morning it will sweep by, it will come through during the day and the night.” When this announcement is understood, it will cause nothing but terror. 20 For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap around oneself.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Wisdom of Solomon 1:16

Deuterocanon
14 For he created all things that they might have being. The generative powers of the world are wholesome, and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor has Hades royal dominion upon earth; 15 for righteousness is immortal, 16 but ungodly men by their hands and their words summoned death; deeming him a friend they pined away. They made a covenant with him, because they are worthy to belong with him.
50 BCE – 50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Wisdom of Solomon

References

"... The righteous-wicked contrast (the “two worlds”) is dramatized as an encounter between two groups about their beliefs and plans (2:1-9). How will the gang deal with a righteous individual who believes in the very things they reject (Wisdom of Solomon 1:10-16)? They decide to test which way of life is valid, theirs or that of the righteous individual who boasts God is his father who will deliver his “son” from foes (1:17-18). They decide to kill him to see if God will do anything (verse 20). The answer will come in Wisdom 5. Wisdom of Solomon 2 is framed by two verses (1:16 and 2:24) that highlight the words “death” and “possession”. Each of the two ways has its adherents (i.e., those “in possession of” it). The wicked reveal their beliefs and behavior as well as those of the righteous individual (2:12-20). Their irreverence, pleasure seeking, and violence are an allusion to the opening scene in Proverbs 1:8-19. The wicked are said to consider death a friend and to make a covenant with it (Wisdom of Solomon 1:16). “Covenant with death” borrows from Isaiah 28:15, where “death” is a metaphor for Egypt with whom some in Israel allied themselves instead of trusting in the Lord. The father-son language in Wisdom 2 is borrowed from wisdom literature, in particular from Proverbs ..."
Daniel Durken, ed., The New Collegeville Bible Commentary: In One Volume (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2017), 1189–1190.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Isaiah 28:18 and Wisdom of Solomon 1:16

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