---
title: "Wisdom 3 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/3/
description: "The happiness of the just: and the unhappiness of the wicked. Wisdom 3 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Wisdom 3

Wisdom 3 is chapter 3 of 19 in the Book of Wisdom. Here are all 19 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The happiness of the just: and the unhappiness of the wicked.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Wisdom 3 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. But the souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment of death will touch them.
2. In the eyes of the foolish, they seemed to die, and their departure was considered an affliction,
3. and their going away from us, a banishment. Yet they are in peace.
4. And though, in the sight of men, they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality.
5. Troubled in few things, in many things they will be well compensated, because God has tested them and found them worthy of himself.
6. Like gold in the furnace, he has proved them, and as a holocaust victim, he has received them, and in the time of their visitation
7. they will shine, and they will dash about like sparks among stubble.
8. They will judge the nations and they will rule over the people, and their Lord will reign forever.
9. Those who trust in him, will understand the truth, and those who are faithful in love will rest in him, because grace and peace is for his elect.
10. But the impious will be chastised according to their thoughts, for they have neglected the just and have retreated from the Lord.
11. For whoever abandons wisdom and instruction is unhappy, and their hope is empty, and their labors without fruit, and their works useless.
12. Their wives are foolish and their sons are wicked; the things that serve them are accursed.
13. Therefore, fertile is the barren and undefiled, who has not known transgressions in bed; she will bear fruit by caring for holy souls.
14. And fertile is the celibate, who has not wrought iniquity with his hands, nor thought wickedness against God; for to him will be given a special gift of faith and a very welcome place in the temple of the Lord.
15. For the fruit of good labors is glorious and the root of wisdom shall never perish.
16. But the sons of adulterers will not reach completion, and the offspring of a sinful bed will be banished.
17. And if they live long, they will be counted as nothing, and their last years of old-age will be without honor.
18. And if they die quickly, they will have no hope, nor words of comfort on the day of reckoning.
19. For the iniquities of the people have a dreadful result.

## Wisdom 3 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Justorum autem animæ in manu Dei sunt, et non tanget illos tormentum mortis.
2. Visi sunt oculis insipientium mori, et æstimata est afflictio exitus illorum,
3. et quod a nobis est iter exterminium; illi autem sunt in pace:
4. etsi coram hominibus tormenta passi sunt, spes illorum immortalitate plena est.
5. In paucis vexati sunt, in multis bene disponentur, quoniam Deus tentavit eos, et invenit illos dignos se.
6. Tamquam aurum in fornace probavit illos, et quasi holocausti hostiam accepit illos, et in tempore erit respectus illorum.
7. Fulgebunt justi et tamquam scintillæ in arundineto discurrent.
8. Judicabunt nationes, et dominabuntur populis, et regnabit Dominus illorum in perpetuum.
9. Qui confidunt in illo intelligent veritatem, et fideles in dilectione acquiescent illi, quoniam donum et pax est electis ejus.
10. Impii autem secundum quæ cogitaverunt correptionem habebunt: qui neglexerunt justum, et a Domino recesserunt.
11. Sapientiam enim et disciplinam qui abjicit infelix est: et vacua est spes illorum, et labores sine fructu, et inutilia opera eorum.
12. Mulieres eorum insensatæ sunt, et nequissimi filii eorum.
13. Maledicta creatura eorum, quoniam felix est sterilis; et incoinquinata, quæ nescivit thorum in delicto, habebit fructum in respectione animarum sanctarum;
14. et spado qui non operatus est per manus suas iniquitatem, nec cogitavit adversus Deum nequissima: dabitur enim illi fidei donum electum, et sors in templo Dei acceptissima.
15. Bonorum enim laborum gloriosus est fructus, et quæ non concidat radix sapientiæ.
16. Filii autem adulterorum in inconsummatione erunt, et ab iniquo thoro semen exterminabitur.
17. Et si quidem longæ vitæ erunt, in nihilum computabuntur, et sine honore erit novissima senectus illorum:
18. et si celerius defuncti fuerint, non habebunt spem, nec in die agnitionis allocutionem.
19. Nationis enim iniquæ diræ sunt consummationes.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Mon, Nov 2, 2026: The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed — First Reading, Wisdom 3:1-9
- Tue, Nov 2, 2027 (computed): The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed — First Reading, Wisdom 3:1-9
- Thu, Nov 2, 2028 (computed): The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed — First Reading, Wisdom 3:1-9

Citations as published in the USCCB liturgical calendar (principal Mass, first option). 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).