¹⁵ A holy people and blameless race
wisdom delivered from a nation of oppressors.
¹⁶ She entered the soul of a servant of the Lord,
and withstood dread kings with wonders and signs.
¹⁷ She gave to holy people the reward of their labours;
she guided them along a marvellous way,
and became a shelter to them by day,
and a starry flame through the night.
¹⁸ She brought them over the Red Sea,
and led them through deep waters;
¹⁹ but she drowned their enemies,
and cast them up from the depths of the sea.
²⁰ Therefore the righteous plundered the ungodly;
they sang hymns, O Lord, to your holy name,
and praised with one accord your defending hand;
²¹ for wisdom opened the mouths of those who were mute,
and made the tongues of infants speak clearly.

11Wisdom prospered their works by the hand of a holy prophet.
² They journeyed through an uninhabited wilderness,
and pitched their tents in untrodden places.
³ They withstood their enemies and fought off their foes.
⁴ When they were thirsty, they called upon you,
and water was given them out of flinty rock,
and from hard stone a remedy for their thirst.
⁵ For through the very things by which their enemies were punished,
they themselves received benefit in their need.
⁶ Instead of the fountain of an ever-flowing river,
stirred up and defiled with blood
⁷ in rebuke for the decree to kill the infants,
you gave them abundant water unexpectedly,
⁸ showing by their thirst at that time
how you punished their enemies.
⁹ For when they were tried, though they were being disciplined in mercy,
they learned how the ungodly were tormented when judged in wrath.
¹⁰ For you tested them as a parent does in warning,
but you examined the ungodly as a stern king does in condemnation.