Wisdom of Solomon 19

1 But merciless wrath came upon the ungodly to the very end, for you knew beforehand what they would do: 2 after permitting your people to leave and urgently sending them away, they would change their minds and pursue them. 3 While they were still mourning and lamenting at the graves of the dead, they adopted another foolish plan. They pursued as fugitives the very people they had begged to leave. 4 The fate they deserved drew them toward this end and made them forget what had already happened, so that they might complete the punishment still lacking from their torments. 5 In this way your people would experience a marvelous journey, while their enemies would meet a strange death.

6 The whole creation was fashioned anew within its own kinds, obeying the commands given by you so that your servants might be kept unharmed. 7 A cloud was seen overshadowing the camp, and dry land emerged where water had stood. An unobstructed road came out of the Red Sea, and a grassy plain rose from the violent waves. 8 The whole nation passed through it, sheltered by your hand and seeing marvelous wonders. 9 They grazed like horses and leaped like lambs, praising you, Lord, who rescued them.

10 They still remembered what had happened during their stay in a foreign land: how the ground produced gnats instead of animals and the river spewed out a multitude of frogs instead of fish. 11 Later they also saw a new kind of bird, when desire led them to ask for delicacies. 12 Quail came up from the sea to satisfy them.

13 Punishments came upon the sinners, not without warning signs through the force of thunderbolts. They suffered justly for their own wickedness, because they had practiced a harsher hatred of strangers. 14 The former group did not welcome strangers when they arrived, but these people enslaved foreigners who had been their benefactors. [a] 15 Not only that, but there will be a reckoning for the former group because they received strangers with hostility. 16 But these people first welcomed with festivities those who already shared the same rights, and afterward afflicted them with terrible hardships. 17 They too were struck with blindness, just as the former group was at the doors of the righteous man. Surrounded by vast darkness, each one searched for the way through his own doorway.

18 The elements changed places with one another, just as notes on a harp change the character of the tune while always remaining sounds. This can be clearly inferred from what happened: 19 Things that live on land became aquatic, while things that swim moved onto the land. 20 Fire kept its power in water, and water forgot its ability to extinguish. 21 Conversely, flames did not consume the flesh of perishable creatures walking within them, nor did they melt the easily melted, ice-like form of ambrosial food. [b] 22 In every way, Lord, you exalted and glorified your people. You did not neglect them but stood beside them at every time and place.