ChaplainHonored virtue

Wisdom 4 • Virtue, early death, and final judgment — Greek text and reception

Saints Translation: Wisdom 1–19 [V1]

Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.

Chapter 4 • Virtue, early death, and final judgment

Virtue outweighs a multitude of descendants

Verse 4:1

Greek–English Saints Priority

Better is childlessness with virtue,

for immortality is in its remembrance,

because it is recognized both by God and by human beings.

Textual & Reception Notes

The feminine pronoun can relate to the preceding childlessness-with-virtue or to virtue itself. The following personification makes virtue prominent; the English leaves the reference open.

Verse 4:2

Greek–English Saints Priority

When it is present, people imitate it,

and when it has departed, they long for it;

throughout the age it marches crowned in triumph,

having won the contest for undefiled prizes.

Textual & Reception Notes

The source personifies virtue with feminine forms. English ‘it’ does not identify that personification with a named divine person.

Verse 4:3

Greek–English Saints Priority

But the prolific multitude of the ungodly will be of no use;

from illegitimate shoots it will not send a root deep down,

nor establish a secure foundation.

Textual & Reception Notes

Verse 4:4

Greek–English Saints Priority

For even if it flourishes in branches for a time,

standing insecurely, it will be shaken by wind

and uprooted by the force of winds.

Textual & Reception Notes

The singular plant image continues the preceding multitude and its offspring.

Verse 4:5

Greek–English Saints Priority

Unfulfilled branches will be broken off,

and their fruit will be useless, unripe for eating,

and fit for nothing.

Textual & Reception Notes

Verse 4:6

Greek–English Saints Priority

For children born from unlawful unions

are witnesses of wickedness against their parents at their examination.

Textual & Reception Notes

‘Unlawful unions’ renders the literal ‘unlawful sleeps.’ The children function as witnesses against the parents; the translation does not reverse that direction.

A righteous life is measured by understanding

Verse 4:7

Greek–English Saints Priority

But if a righteous person comes to death early, he will be at rest.

Textual & Reception Notes

Φθάνω gives the sense of reaching the end ahead of the expected time; the following contrast concerns old age.

Verse 4:8

Greek–English Saints Priority

For honorable old age is not length of time,

nor is it measured by a number of years;

Textual & Reception Notes

Verse 4:9

Greek–English Saints Priority

rather, understanding is gray hair for human beings,

and an unstained life is the maturity of old age.

Textual & Reception Notes

Verse 4:10

Greek–English Saints Priority

Having become pleasing to God, he was loved,

and while living among sinners he was transferred.

Textual & Reception Notes

The source does not name the righteous person. The transfer language may invite comparison with a known righteous figure, but no name is inserted into the translation.

Verse 4:11

Greek–English Saints Priority

He was snatched away, lest evil change his understanding

or deceit mislead his soul;

Textual & Reception Notes

Verse 4:12

Greek–English Saints Priority

for the fascination of wickedness obscures what is good,

and the wandering of desire alters an innocent mind.

Textual & Reception Notes

Βασκανία evokes a bewitching or malign fascination. Ῥεμβασμός is wandering or distraction; the exact psychological image is retained provisionally.

Verse 4:13

Greek–English Saints Priority

Having been brought to completion in a short time, he fulfilled long years;

Textual & Reception Notes

Completion and length of life are deliberately distinguished.

Verse 4:14

Greek–English Saints Priority

for his soul was pleasing to the Lord;

therefore he hastened from the midst of wickedness.

Yet the peoples saw and did not understand,

nor set such a thing in their minds:

Textual & Reception Notes

The verb ‘hastened’ has the righteous person as its natural subject; the translation does not add God as the grammatical agent of that verb. The following verse supplies what the peoples failed to grasp.

Verse 4:15

Greek–English Saints Priority

that grace and mercy are among His chosen ones,

and visitation among His holy ones.

Textual & Reception Notes

Ὅσιοι is rendered holy ones; it describes those devoted to God without importing a later canonization process.

The judgment of those who despised the righteous

Verse 4:16

Greek–English Saints Priority

But a righteous person who has died will condemn the living ungodly,

and youth brought swiftly to completion will condemn the many-year old age of an unrighteous person.

Textual & Reception Notes

Καμών, literally worn out or having labored, is understood in the death context. The second ‘will condemn’ supplies the verb shared with the first clause.

Verse 4:17

Greek–English Saints Priority

For they will see a wise person’s end

and will not understand what the Lord planned concerning him

or for what purpose He kept him safe.

Textual & Reception Notes

Verse 4:18

Greek–English Saints Priority

They will see and despise,

but the Lord will laugh them to scorn.

Textual & Reception Notes

Verse 4:19

Greek–English Saints Priority

And afterward they will become a dishonored corpse

and an object of outrage among the dead forever;

for He will dash them down headlong, speechless,

and shake them from their foundations;

they will be laid utterly waste,

and will be in anguish,

and their remembrance will perish.

Textual & Reception Notes

The Greek shifts from plural persons to the singular collective image ‘a dishonored corpse.’ The violent and architectural images are both retained.

Verse 4:20

Greek–English Saints Priority

They will come in dread at the reckoning of their sins,

and their lawless deeds will confront and convict them.

Textual & Reception Notes