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Wisdom 3:1-5
New Catholic Bible
Wisdom 3:1-5
New Catholic Bible
For the Righteous—Life Eternal[a]
Chapter 3
Their Hope Is Full of Immortality[b]
1 [c]But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
and no torment can overtake them.
2 From the viewpoint of the foolish, they seemed to be dead,
and their passing away was reckoned as a misfortune,
3 and their departure from us as their ruin.
But they are at peace.[d]
4 Although in the eyes of others they were chastised,
their hope is full of immortality.
5 Having endured a slight chastisement, they will receive great blessings,
because God tested them
and found them worthy to be with him.[e]
Footnotes
- Wisdom 3:1 Longevity, posterity, and success—those grand realities in which the ancients strove to decipher the signs of divine recompense—are found to be valueless. The scale of values is reversed: true happiness is life with God, starting from the present and moving into an unimaginable eternity. The destiny of human beings is enlightened by a new day.
- Wisdom 3:1 Influenced by Greek thought, the author speaks of immortality, though still not arriving at the idea of a resurrection of the body.
- Wisdom 3:1 The Liturgy applies these verses to martyrs.
- Wisdom 3:3 Peace: this word here refers to a state without evil (see Job 3:17f; Isa 57:2) where there is security or happiness under God’s protection and in intimacy with him (see vv. 1, 9).
- Wisdom 3:5 Trials and sufferings purify the righteous (Tob 12:13; 2 Mac 6:12-17; 7:32-33; Pss 66:10; 119:75; Prov 3:11-12; 1 Cor 11:32; Heb 12:11).
