---
title: "Wisdom 18 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/18/
description: "The slaughter of the firstborn in Egypt: the efficacy of Aaron's intercession… Wisdom 18 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Wisdom 18

Wisdom 18 is chapter 18 of 19 in the Book of Wisdom. Here are all 25 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The slaughter of the firstborn in Egypt: the efficacy of Aaron's intercession, in the sedition on occasion of Core.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Wisdom 18 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. But your saints were your greatest light, and they heard your voice, but did not see your form. And because they themselves did not also suffer the same things, they praised you greatly.
2. And those who were wounded before, gave thanks, because they were no longer being wounded, and because they had petitioned for this gift, that there would be this difference.
3. Because of this, they had a burning column of fire as a guide on the unknown way, and you displayed a harmless sun of a good hospitality.
4. The others, indeed, deserved to be deprived of the light and to endure a prison of darkness, who watched for an opportunity to imprison your sons, by whom the incorruptible light of the law was beginning to be given to future generations.
5. When they thought to kill the babes of the just, one son having been exposed and set free, to their disgrace, you took away a multitude of their sons and destroyed them all together in a mighty water.
6. For that night was known beforehand by our fathers, so that, knowing the truth of the oaths in which they had trusted, they might be more peaceful in their souls.
7. Yet your people received not only the salvation of the just, but also the destruction of the unjust.
8. For just as you wounded our adversaries, so also did you greatly esteem calling us forth.
9. For the just children of goodness were secretly offering sacrifice, and in agreement they administered the law of justice, so that both good and bad would be able to receive justice, and so that you might now approve of their chanting to the father.
10. On the other hand, a dissimilar voice was resounding from the enemies, and a lamentable wailing was heard for the children who were being cried over.
11. But the same punishment afflicted the servant with the master, and the common man endured the same as the king.
12. Therefore, all were the same, with one name for death, and the dead were innumerable. For neither were the living sufficient to bury the dead, because, with a single effort, their most illustrious nation was exterminated.
13. For they would not believe anything because of the drugs; then truly, at the beginning, when the extermination of the firstborn happened, they pledged the people to belong to God.
14. For, when a quiet silence surrounded all things, and when the course of the night was passing the middle of its journey,
15. your almighty word from heaven leapt down from your royal throne, as a fierce warrior in the midst of the land of extermination,
16. as a sharp sword carrying your unfeigned authority, and standing, filled all things with death, and, standing on the earth, reached all the way up to touch heaven.
17. Then, incessant visions of nightmares disturbed them, and unexpected fears overcame them.
18. And another was thrown down elsewhere half-alive; and so, by means of that which was dying, the cause of death was revealed.
19. For the visions that disturbed them had forewarned of these things, lest they should perish and not know why they suffered these evils.
20. Yet, at that time, the trial of death touched even the just, and there was a disturbance of the multitude in the wilderness, but your wrath did not continue for long.
21. For a blameless man, prospering, is to be entreated for your people, bringing forth the shield of your service, through prayer and incense, making prayerful supplication, he withstands anger, and so establishes an end to the necessary difficulty, revealing that he is your servant.
22. Yet he outlasted the disturbance, not by virtue of the body, nor by force of arms, but, with a word, he subdued those who were troubling him, commemorating the oaths and covenant of the parents.
23. For when they were now fallen down dead by heaps one upon another, he stood between them and cut off their attack, and he divided those who controlled the path to the living.
24. For, within the garment of shame which he held, the world was all together, and the great deeds of the parents were engraved on four orders of stones, and your majesty was engraved on the crown of his head.
25. Yet he who was exterminating yielded even to those he frightened. For one trial of wrath was sufficient.

## Wisdom 18 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Sanctis autem tuis maxima erat lux, et horum quidem vocem audiebant, sed figuram non videbant. Et quia non et ipsi eadem passi erant, magnificabant te;
2. et qui ante læsi erant, quia non lædebantur, gratias agebant, et ut esset differentia, donum petebant.
3. Propter quod ignis ardentem columnam ducem habuerunt ignotæ viæ, et solem sine læsura boni hospitii præstitisti.
4. Digni quidem illi carere luce, et pati carcerem tenebrarum, qui inclusos custodiebant filios tuos, per quos incipiebat incorruptum legis lumen sæculo dari.
5. Cum cogitarent justorum occidere infantes, et uno exposito filio et liberato, in traductionem illorum, multitudinem filiorum abstulisti, et pariter illos perdidisti in aqua valida.
6. Illa enim nox ante cognita est a patribus nostris, ut vere scientes quibus juramentis crediderunt, animæquiores essent.
7. Suscepta est autem a populo tuo sanitas quidem justorum, injustorum autem exterminatio.
8. Sicut enim læsisti adversarios, sic et nos provocans magnificasti.
9. Absconse enim sacrificabant justi pueri bonorum, et justitiæ legem in concordia disposuerunt; similiter et bona et mala recepturos justos, patrum jam decantantes laudes.
10. Resonabat autem inconveniens inimicorum vox, et flebilis audiebatur planctus ploratorum infantium.
11. Simili autem pœna servus cum domino afflictus est, et popularis homo regi similia passus.
12. Similiter ergo omnes, uno nomine mortis, mortuos habebant innumerabiles: nec enim ad sepeliendum vivi sufficiebant, quoniam uno momento quæ erat præclarior natio illorum exterminata est.
13. De omnibus enim non credentes, propter veneficia; tunc vero primum cum fuit exterminium primogenitorum, spoponderunt populum Dei esse.
14. Cum enim quietum silentium contineret omnia, et nox in suo cursu medium iter haberet,
15. omnipotens sermo tuus de cælo, a regalibus sedibus, durus debellator in mediam exterminii terram prosilivit,
16. gladius acutus insimulatum imperium tuum portans: et stans, replevit omnia morte, et usque ad cælum attingebat stans in terra.
17. Tunc continuo visus somniorum malorum turbaverunt illos, et timores supervenerunt insperati.
18. Et alius alibi projectus semivivus, propter quam moriebatur causam demonstrabat mortis.
19. Visiones enim quæ illos turbaverunt hæc præmonebant, ne inscii quare mala patiebantur perirent.
20. Tetigit autem tunc et justos tentatio mortis, et commotio in eremo facta est multitudinis: sed non diu permansit ira tua.
21. Prosperans enim homo sine querela deprecari pro populis, proferens servitutis suæ scutum, orationem et per incensum deprecationem allegans, restitit iræ, et finem imposuit necessitati, ostendens quoniam tuus est famulus.
22. Vicit autem turbas non in virtute corporis, nec armaturæ potentia: sed verbo illum qui se vexabat subjecit, juramenta parentum et testamentum commemorans.
23. Cum enim jam acervatim cecidissent super alterutrum mortui, interstitit, et amputavit impetum, et divisit illam quæ ad vivos ducebat viam.
24. In veste enim poderis quam habebat, totus erat orbis terrarum; et parentum magnalia in quatuor ordinibus lapidum erant sculpta, et magnificentia tua in diademate capitis illius sculpta erat.
25. His autem cessit qui exterminabat, et hæc extimuit: erat enim sola tentatio iræ sufficiens.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 3: “A harmless sun” … A light that should not hurt or molest them; but that should be an agreeable guest to them.
- Verse 5: Viz., Moses.
- Verse 9: Viz., of the patriarchs. Their children, the Israelites, offered in private the sacrifice of the paschal lamb; and were regulating what they were to do in their journey, when that last and most dreadful plague was coming upon their enemies.
- Verse 12: That is, the firstborn.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sat, Nov 13, 2027 (computed): St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin — First Reading, Wisdom 18:14-16; 19:6-9
- Sun, Aug 13, 2028 (computed): Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Wisdom 18:6-9

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).