--- title: "Book of Wisdom: Summary & All 19 Chapters · Bless" url: https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/ description: "The Book of Wisdom, a wisdom exhortation in 19 chapters. Bp. Challoner’s summary of all 19 chapters, and the full text free." --- Old Testament · Deuterocanonical # The Book of Wisdom The Book of Wisdom is the twenty-fifth of the 46 books of the Old Testament, and one of its 7 deuterocanonical books: 19 chapters and 439 verses. [Start reading: Wisdom 1](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/1/) Chapters 1–19: [1](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/1/) … [19](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/19/) ## About Wisdom About Wisdom · Wisdom exhortation The book of Wisdom was written in Greek by an unknown Alexandrian Jew in roughly the last century before Christ, speaking in the persona of Solomon. It addresses educated Jews tempted to trade their faith for fashionable philosophy, and answers with the boldest teaching on immortality in the Old Testament: the souls of the just are in the hand of God. It belongs to the deuterocanonical books of the Catholic canon, and its portrait of the persecuted just man reads, to Christian eyes, like prophecy of the Passion. *Wisdom in Bless* | | | |---|---| | Testament | Old Testament — book 25 of 46, 25 of 73 in the Bible | | Canon | Deuterocanonical | | Chapters | 19 | | Verses | 439, as Bless numbers them | | Latin | Clementine Vulgate, every chapter | | Bp. Challoner | Summaries of all 19 chapters · 26 notes | | Catechism | 14 paragraphs cite it | Chapter by chapter ## All 19 chapters, *in brief.* Bishop Richard Challoner’s summary of each chapter, from his revision of the Douay-Rheims (1749–52). Open a chapter for the full text. 1. ### [Wisdom 1](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/1/) 16 verses An exhortation to seek God sincerely, who cannot be deceived, and desireth not our death. 2. ### [Wisdom 2](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/2/) 25 verses The vain reasonings of the wicked: their persecuting the just, especially the Son of God. 3. ### [Wisdom 3](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/3/) 19 verses The happiness of the just: and the unhappiness of the wicked. 4. ### [Wisdom 4](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/4/) 20 verses The difference between the chaste and the adulterous generations: and between the death of the just and the wicked. 5. ### [Wisdom 5](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/5/) 24 verses The fruitless repentance of the wicked in another world: the reward of the just. 6. ### [Wisdom 6](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/6/) 27 verses An address to princes to seek after wisdom: she is easily found by those that seek her. 7. ### [Wisdom 7](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/7/) 30 verses The excellence of wisdom: how she is to be found. 8. ### [Wisdom 8](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/8/) 21 verses Further praises of wisdom: and her fruits. 9. ### [Wisdom 9](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/9/) 19 verses Solomon's prayer for wisdom. 10. ### [Wisdom 10](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/10/) 21 verses What wisdom did for Adam, Noe, Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Joseph, and the people of Israel. 11. ### [Wisdom 11](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/11/) 27 verses Other benefits of wisdom to the people of God. 12. ### [Wisdom 12](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/12/) 27 verses God's wisdom and mercy in his proceedings with the Chanaanites. 13. ### [Wisdom 13](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/13/) 19 verses Idolaters are inexcusable: and those most of all that worship for gods the works of the hands of men. 14. ### [Wisdom 14](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/14/) 31 verses The beginning of worshipping idols: and the effects thereof. 15. ### [Wisdom 15](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/15/) 19 verses The servants of God praise him who hath delivered them from idolatry; condemning both the makers and the worshippers of idols. 16. ### [Wisdom 16](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/16/) 29 verses God's different dealings with the Egyptians and with his own people. 17. ### [Wisdom 17](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/17/) 20 verses The Egyptian darkness. 18. ### [Wisdom 18](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/18/) 25 verses The slaughter of the firstborn in Egypt: the efficacy of Aaron's intercession, in the sedition on occasion of Core. 19. ### [Wisdom 19](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/19/) 20 verses Why God shewed no mercy to the Egyptians. His favour to the Israelites. All creatures obey God's orders for the service of the good, and the punishment of the wicked. Bp. Richard Challoner · chapter summaries Coming up ## Read at *Mass.* From October 29, 2026 to October 28, 2027, Wisdom is read at the principal Mass on 6 days in the US calendar. The next 8 readings: | Date | Celebration | Reading | Citation | |---|---|---|---| | [Mon, Nov 2, 2026](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2026/11/02/) | The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed | First Reading | [Wisdom 3:1-9](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/3/) | | [Sun, Nov 8, 2026](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2026/11/08/) | Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time | First Reading | [Wisdom 6:12-16](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/6/) | | [Fri, Mar 12, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/03/12/) | Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent | First Reading | [Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/2/) | | [Sun, Jun 27, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/06/27/) computed | Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time | First Reading | [Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/1/) | | [Sun, Sep 19, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/09/19/) computed | Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time | First Reading | [Wisdom 2:12, 17-20](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/2/) | | [Sun, Oct 10, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/10/10/) computed | Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time | First Reading | [Wisdom 7:7-11](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/7/) | | [Tue, Nov 2, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/11/02/) computed | The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed | First Reading | [Wisdom 3:1-9](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/3/) | | [Mon, Nov 8, 2027](https://blessbible.app/calendar/2027/11/08/) computed | Monday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time | First Reading | [Wisdom 1:1-7](https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/1/) | 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. [Previous book The Song of Songs](https://blessbible.app/bible/song-of-songs/) [Next book The Book of Sirach](https://blessbible.app/bible/sirach/)