Wisdom Led Israel through the Desert

Solomon continues praying:

1 Wisdom made the people of Israel successful by sending them the holy prophet Moses. 2They went through a desert where no one lived and camped in places where no one had ever been. 3They defeated their enemies, 4and when they were thirsty and prayed for your help, you made water flow from a solid rock.

The Egyptians Were Punished

Solomon continues praying:

5Our Lord, your people were helped by the same disasters that were used to punish their enemies. 6You turned the ever-flowing Nile River into filthy blood 7to punish the Egyptians for ordering the Hebrew children to be killed, then you surprised everyone by providing your people with more than enough water to satisfy their thirst. 8-9You mercifully let your people go thirsty for a while to show how severely you would punish their ungodly enemies in your anger. 10 You corrected your people like parents correcting their children as a warning, but you punished the others like a harsh king condemning a criminal.

11All the Egyptians suffered--those who lived near your people and those who lived far away. 12In fact, they suffered at the time of these disasters and again whenever they remembered what had happened. 13And when the Egyptians learned that your people had benefited from these troubles, they realized that you, Lord, had done it all. 14Earlier they had made fun of Moses, who had been placed outside to die when he was a baby, but now they were amazed at him, because they suffered from thirst much more severely than your people.

More Punishment for the Egyptians

Solomon continues praying:

15 The Egyptians were so foolish and evil that they worshiped mindless snakes and worthless animals, and so you sent swarms of senseless creatures to punish them 16and to teach them that sin brings its own punishment. 17With your own mighty arm, you made the world out of something that had no form, and so you could have sent a lot of bears or ferocious lions. 18Or you could have created savage beasts just to punish them--beasts that breathe out fire and smoke and shoot sparks from their eyes, 19killing people not only by the injuries they cause but by their very appearance. 20In fact, you could have wiped out the Egyptians with a single breath, while you were scattering them with your power and treating them as they deserved. But you do everything fairly and according to the laws of nature that you created.

God Is Powerful and Merciful

Solomon continues praying:

21You always have the strength to do what you want, and no one can oppose you. 22In your sight, the universe is merely a grain of sand that tips a balance scale or a drop of dew in the early morning. 23You can do anything, and yet you patiently show mercy to everyone, so that they will turn from their sins. 24In all creation there is nothing you don't love; otherwise, you would not have created everything. 25Nothing would have lasted, unless you had wanted it to. 26All living creatures belong to you, and you love them all,