1 Love justice, you who judge the land. Think of the Lord in goodness and seek him in simplicity of heart.
2 For he is found by those who do not test him, yet he reveals himself to those who have faith in him.
3 For perverse thoughts separate from God. But his virtue, when it is tested, corrects the foolish.
4 For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subdued by sin.
5 For the holy spirit of instruction will flee from falsehood, and he will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and he will not be reached when iniquity overcomes.
6 For the spirit of wisdom is benevolent, and will not release the evil speaker from his talk, because God is a witness of his temperament, and a true examiner of his heart, and an auditor of his words.
7 For the spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and he who contains all things, retains knowledge of every voice.
8 Therefore, he who speaks unjust things cannot escape notice, nor will the chastising judgment pass him by.
9 For inquiry will be made into the thoughts of the impious, his conversation also will reach the hearing of God, to the chastising of his iniquities.
10 For the zealous ear hears all things, and the disturbance of complaining will not be hidden.
11 Therefore, keep yourselves from complaining, which benefits nothing, and refrain your tongue from slander, because secret conversation will not pass into nothingness, and the mouth that deceives kills the soul.
12 Do not court death by the error of your life, nor procure your destruction by the works of your hands,
13 because God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the loss of the living.
14 For he created all things that they might exist, and he made the nations of the world curable, and there is no medicine of extermination in them, nor a kingdom of hell upon the earth.
15 For justice is perpetual and immortal.
16 But the impious, with hands and words, have called death to them, and, esteeming it a friend, they have fallen away and have made a covenant with death, because they deserved to take part in it.
1 For they have said, reasoning with themselves incorrectly: “Our lifetime is brief and tedious, and there is no relief within the limits of man, and no one is acknowledged to have returned from the dead.
2 For we are born from nothing, and after this we will be as if we had not been, because the breath in our nostrils is like smoke, and conversation sends out sparks from the stirring of our heart;
3 therefore, when it is extinguished, our body will be ashes, and our spirit will be diffused like a soft breeze, and our life will pass away like the wisp of a cloud, just as a mist is dissolved when it is driven away by the rays of the sun and overpowered by its heat.
4 And in time our name will surrender to oblivion, and no one will have remembrance of our works.
5 For our time is like the passing of a shadow, and nothing can reverse our end, for it is signed and sealed, and cannot be returned.
6 Therefore, hurry, let us enjoy the good things of the present time, and let us quickly use up passing things, just as in youth.
7 Let us indulge ourselves with costly wine and ointments, and let no flower of youth pass us by.
8 Let us surround ourselves with rosebuds before they wither; let no meadow be left untouched by our indulgence.
9 Let no one among us be exempt from our indulgence. Let us leave behind tokens of enjoyment everywhere, for this is our portion, and this is fate.
10 Let us oppress the poor just man, and not spare the widow, nor respect the aged grey hairs of elders.
11 But let our strength be the law of justice, for what is weak is found to be useless.
12 Therefore, let us encircle the just, because he is useless to us, and he is against our works, and he reproaches us with our legal offenses, and makes known to us the sins of our way of life.
13 He promises that he has the knowledge of God and he calls himself the son of God.
14 He was made among us to expose our very thoughts.
15 He is grievous for us even to behold, for his life is unlike other men’s lives, and immutable are his ways.
16 It is as if we are considered by him to be insignificant, and he abstains from our ways as from filth; he prefers the newly justified, and he glories that he has God for his father.
17 Let us see, then, if his words are true, and let us test what will happen to him, and then we will know what his end will be.
18 For if he is the true son of God, he will receive him and deliver him from the hands of his adversaries.
19 Let us examine him with insult and torture, that we may know his reverence and try his patience.
20 Let us condemn him to a most shameful death, for, according to his own words, God will care for him.”
21 These things they thought, and they were mistaken, for their own malice blinded them.
22 And they were ignorant of the mysteries of God; they neither hoped for the reward of justice, nor judged the value of holy souls.
23 For God created man to be immortal, and he made him in the image of his own likeness.
24 But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world,
25 yet they imitate him, who are from his side.
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.
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30 And Jonathan pursued them, but did not overtake them. For they had crossed the river Eleutherus.
31 And Jonathan diverted toward the Arabians, who are called Zabadeans. And he struck them and took their spoils.
32 And he regrouped and came to Damascus, and he passed through all that region.
33 But Simon went forth and came as far as Askalon, and the nearby fortresses, but he turned aside to Joppa and occupied it,
34 (for he had heard that they intended to hand over the fortress that was on the side of Demetrius) and he stationed a guard there to keep it.
35 And Jonathan returned, and he called together the elders of the people, and he decided with them to build fortresses in Judea,
36 and to build up the walls in Jerusalem, and to raise a great height between the stronghold and the city, in order to separate it from the city, so that it would stand alone and would have neither buying, nor selling there.
37 And they came together to build up the city. And the wall that was over the brook, toward the rising of the sun, was fallen. And he repaired that which is called Chaphenatha.
38 And Simon rebuilt Adida in Shephelah, and he fortified it, and he set up gates and bars.
39 And so, when Trypho had decided to reign over Asia, and to assume the diadem, and to extend his hand against king Antiochus,
40 he was afraid, lest Jonathan might not permit him, but might fight against him. So he sought to seize him and to kill him. And he rose up and went to Bethshan.
41 And Jonathan went out to meet him with forty thousand men chosen for battle, and he came to Bethshan.
42 And when Trypho saw that Jonathan came with a great army to extend his hand against him, he was afraid.
43 And so he received him with honor, and he commended him to all his friends, and he gave him gifts. And he instructed his troops to obey him, just as himself.
44 And he said to Jonathan: “Why have you troubled all the people, when there is no war between us?
45 And now, send them back to their houses, but choose for yourself a few men, who may remain with you, and come with me to Ptolemais, and I will deliver it to you, and the rest of the fortresses, and the army, and all who are in charge of governing, and I will turn and go away. For this is the reason that I came.”
46 And Jonathan believed him, and he did as he said. And he sent away his army, and they departed into the land of Judah.
47 But he retained with him three thousand men, of whom he sent two thousand into Galilee, and one thousand came with him.
48 But when Jonathan entered into Ptolemais, those of Ptolemais closed the gates of the city, and they captured him. And all those who entered with him, they executed with the sword.
49 And Trypho sent an army and horsemen into Galilee, and into the great plain, to destroy all the associates of Jonathan.
50 But, when they had thought that Jonathan had been captured and slain, along with all who were with him, they encouraged one another, and they went out prepared for battle.
51 Then those who had pursued them, seeing that they stood for their lives, were turned back.
52 And so, they all came into the land of Judah with peace. And they bewailed Jonathan, and those who had been with him, exceedingly. And Israel mourned with great lamentation.
53 Then all the nations that were all around them sought to crush them. For they said:
54 They have no leader or helper. Now therefore, let us fight against them and take away the memory of them from among men.
1 O Lord, remember David, and all his meekness.
2 How he swore to the Lord, he vowed a vow to the God of Jacob:
3 If I shall enter into the tabernacle of my house: if I shall go up into the bed wherein I lie:
4 If I shall give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids,
5 Or rest to my temples: until I find out a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
1 My brothers, within the glorious faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, do not choose to show favoritism toward persons.
2 For if a man has entered your assembly having a gold ring and splendid apparel, and if a poor man has also entered, in dirty clothing,
3 and if you are then attentive to the one who is clothed in excellent apparel, so that you say to him, “You may sit in this good place,” but you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit below my footstool,”
4 are you not judging within yourselves, and have you not become judges with unjust thoughts?
5 My most beloved brothers, listen. Has not God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that God has promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you through power? And are not they the ones who drag you to judgment?
7 Are not they the ones who blaspheme the good name which has been invoked over you?
8 So if you perfect the regal law, according to the Scriptures, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” then you do well.
9 But if you show favoritism to persons, then you commit a sin, having been convicted again by the law as transgressors.
10 Now whoever has observed the whole law, yet who offends in one matter, has become guilty of all.
11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not kill.” So if you do not commit adultery, but you kill, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak and act just as you are beginning to be judged, by the law of liberty.
13 For judgment is without mercy toward him who has not shown mercy. But mercy exalts itself above judgment.
14 My brothers, what benefit is there if someone claims to have faith, but he does not have works? How would faith be able to save him?
15 So if a brother or sister is naked and daily in need of food,
16 and if anyone of you were to say to them: “Go in peace, keep warm and nourished,” and yet not give them the things that are necessary for the body, of what benefit is this?
17 Thus even faith, if it does not have works, is dead, in and of itself.
18 Now someone may say: “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works! But I will show you my faith by means of works.
19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. But the demons also believe, and they tremble greatly.
20 So then, are you willing to understand, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
21 Was not our father Abraham justified by means of works, by offering his son Isaac upon the altar?
22 Do you see that faith was cooperating with his works, and that by means of works faith was brought to fulfillment?
23 And so the Scripture was fulfilled which says: “Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.” And so he was called the friend of God.
24 Do you see that a man is justified by means of works, and not by faith alone?
25 Similarly also, Rahab, the harlot, was she not justified by works, by receiving the messengers and sending them out through another way?
26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
