Wisdom 18:1–9

¹But for your holy ones there was great light. Their enemies, hearing their voice but not seeing their form, counted it a happy thing that they had not suffered,↗

²yet for that they do not hurt them, though wronged by them before, they are thankful; and because they had been at variance with them, they begged for pardon.↗

³Therefore you provided a burning pillar of fire, to be a guide for your people’s unknown journey, and a harmless sun for their glorious exile.↗

⁴For the Egyptians well deserved to be deprived of light and imprisoned by darkness, they who had imprisoned your children, through whom the incorruptible light of the law was to be given to the race of men.↗

⁵After they had taken counsel to kill the babes of the holy ones, and when a single child had been abandoned and saved to convict them of their sin, you took away from them their multitude of children, and destroyed all their army together in a mighty flood.↗

⁶Our fathers were made aware of that night beforehand, that, having sure knowledge, they might be cheered by the oaths which they had trusted.↗

⁷Salvation of the righteous and destruction of the enemies was expected by your people.↗

⁸For as you took vengeance on the adversaries, by the same means, calling us to yourself, you glorified us.↗

⁹For holy children of good men offered sacrifice in secret, and with one consent they agreed to the covenant of the divine law, that they would partake alike in the same good things and the same perils, the fathers already leading the sacred songs of praise.↗