---
title: "Wisdom 12 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/12/
description: "God's wisdom and mercy in his proceedings with the Chanaanites. Wisdom 12 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Wisdom 12

Wisdom 12 is chapter 12 of 19 in the Book of Wisdom. Here are all 27 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> God's wisdom and mercy in his proceedings with the Chanaanites.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Wisdom 12 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. O how good and gracious, Lord, is your spirit in all things!
2. Therefore, those who wander afield, you correct, and, as to those who sin, you counsel them and admonish them, so that, having abandoned malice, they may believe in you, O Lord.
3. For those ancient inhabitants of your holy land, who you abhorred,
4. because they were doing works hateful to you, through unjust medicines and sacrifices,
5. and the merciless murderers of their own sons, and the eaters of human entrails, and the devourers of blood apart from your community sacrament,
6. and the sellers performing the ceremonies of helpless souls, you willed to destroy by the hands of our parents,
7. so that they might worthily secure the sojourn of the children of God, in the land which is most beloved by you.
8. Yet, so that you were lenient even to these men, you sent wasps, forerunners of your army, so that you might destroy them little by little,
9. not because you were unable to subdue the impious under the just by war or by cruel beasts, or with a harsh word to exterminate them at once,
10. but, in judging by degrees, you were giving them a place of repentance, not unaware that their nation is wicked, and their malice is inherent, and that their thinking could never be changed.
11. For this offspring was accursed from the beginning. Neither did you, fearing anyone, give favor to their sins.
12. For who will say to you, “What have you done?” Or who will stand against your judgment? Or who will come before you as a defender of unfair men? Or who will accuse you, if the nations perish, which you have made?
13. For neither is there any other God but you, who has care of all, to whom you would show that you did not give judgment unjustly.
14. Neither will king or tyrant inquire before you about those whom you destroyed.
15. Therefore, since you are just, you order all things justly, considering it foreign to your virtue to condemn him who does not deserve to be punished.
16. For your power is the beginning of justice, and, because you are Lord of all, you make yourself to be lenient to all.
17. For you reveal power to those who do not believe you to be perfect in power, and you expose the arrogance of those who do not know you.
18. Yet, you are the master of power, since you judge with tranquility, and since you administer us with great reverence; for it is close to you to be used whenever you will.
19. But you have taught your people, through such works, that they must be just and humane, and you have made your sons to be of good hope, because in judging you provide a place for repentance from sins.
20. For even if the enemies of your servants were deserving of death, you afflicted them with great attentiveness, providing a time and a place whereby they would be able to be changed from malice;
21. with what diligence, then, have you judged your sons, whose parents you have given oaths and covenants in good faith!
22. Therefore, while you give us discipline, you give our enemies a multiplicity of scourges, so that in judging we may think on your goodness, and when we are judged, we may hope for mercy.
23. Therefore, also to these, who have lived their life irrationally and unjustly, through these things that they worshiped, you gave the greatest torments.
24. And, indeed, they wandered for a long time in the way of error, valuing those things as gods, which are worthless even among animals, living in foolish irrational behavior.
25. Because of this, you have given a judgment in derision, as if from foolish children.
26. But those who have not been corrected by mockery and chiding, have experienced a judgment worthy of God.
27. For among those who were indignant at their sufferings, which came through those things that they reputed to be gods, when they saw that they would be destroyed by these same things, those who formerly refused knowledge of him, now acknowledged the true God, and, because of this, the end of their condemnation came upon them.

## Wisdom 12 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. O quam bonus et suavis est, Domine, spiritus tuus in omnibus!
2. Ideoque eos qui exerrant partibus corripis, et de quibus peccant admones et alloqueris, ut relicta malitia credant in te, Domine.
3. Illos enim antiquos inhabitatores terræ sanctæ tuæ, quos exhorruisti,
4. quoniam odibilia opera tibi faciebant per medicamina et sacrificia injusta,
5. et filiorum suorum necatores sine misericordia, et comestores viscerum hominum, et devoratores sanguinis a medio sacramento tuo,
6. et auctores parentes animarum inauxiliatarum, perdere voluisti per manus parentum nostrorum:
7. ut dignam perciperent peregrinationem puerorum Dei, quæ tibi omnium carior est terra.
8. Sed et his tamquam hominibus pepercisti, et misisti antecessores exercitus tui vespas, ut illos paulatim exterminarent.
9. Non quia impotens eras in bello subjicere impios justis, aut bestiis sævis, aut verbo duro simul exterminare:
10. sed partibus judicans, dabas locum pœnitentiæ, non ignorans quoniam nequam est natio eorum, et naturalis malitia ipsorum, et quoniam non poterat mutari cogitatio illorum in perpetuum.
11. Semen enim erat maledictum ab initio; nec timens aliquem, veniam dabas peccatis illorum.
12. Quis enim dicet tibi: Quid fecisti? aut quis stabit contra judicium tuum? aut quis in conspectu tuo veniet vindex iniquorum hominum? aut quis tibi imputabit, si perierint nationes quas tu fecisti?
13. Non enim est alius deus quam tu, cui cura est de omnibus, ut ostendas quoniam non injuste judicas judicium.
14. Neque rex, neque tyrannus in conspectu tuo inquirent de his quos perdidisti.
15. Cum ergo sis justus, juste omnia disponis; ipsum quoque qui non debet puniri, condemnare, exterum æstimas a tua virtute.
16. Virtus enim tua justitiæ initium est, et ob hoc quod Dominus es, omnibus te parcere facis.
17. Virtutem enim ostendis tu, qui non crederis esse in virtute consummatus, et horum qui te nesciunt audaciam traducis.
18. Tu autem dominator virtutis, cum tranquillitate judicas, et cum magna reverentia disponis nos: subest enim tibi, cum volueris posse.
19. Docuisti autem populum tuum per talia opera, quoniam oportet justum esse et humanum; et bonæ spei fecisti filios tuos, quoniam judicans das locum in peccatis pœnitentiæ.
20. Si enim inimicos servorum tuorum, et debitos morti, cum tanta cruciasti attentione, dans tempus et locum per quæ possent mutari a malitia:
21. cum quanta diligentia judicasti filios tuos, quorum parentibus juramenta et conventiones dedisti bonarum promissionum!
22. Cum ergo das nobis disciplinam, inimicos nostros multipliciter flagellas, ut bonitatem tuam cogitemus judicantes, et cum de nobis judicatur, speremus misericordiam tuam.
23. Unde et illis qui in vita sua insensate et injuste vixerunt, per hæc quæ coluerunt dedisti summa tormenta.
24. Etenim in erroris via diutius erraverunt, deos æstimantes hæc quæ in animalibus sunt supervacua, infantium insensatorum more viventes.
25. Propter hoc tamquam pueris insensatis judicium in derisum dedisti.
26. Qui autem ludibriis et increpationibus non sunt correcti, dignum Dei judicium experti sunt.
27. In quibus enim patientes indignabantur per hæc quos putabant deos, in ipsis cum exterminarentur videntes, illum quem olim negabant se nosse, verum Deum agnoverunt; propter quod et finis condemnationis eorum venit super illos.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 5: Literally, sacrament. That is, the land sacred to thee, in which thy temple was to be established, and man's redemption to be wrought.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sun, Nov 5, 2028 (computed): Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Wisdom 11:22—12:2

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).