1Love righteousness, all you who are judges of the earth.
Think of the Lord with a good mind.
Seek Him in singleness of heart,
2because He is found by those who don’t put Him to the test,
and is manifested to those who trust Him.
3for crooked thoughts separate from God.
His Power convicts when it is tested,
and exposes the foolish;
4because wisdom will not enter into a soul that devises evil,
nor dwell in a body that is enslaved by sin.
5For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit,
and will depart from thoughts that are without understanding,
and will be ashamed when unrighteousness has come in.
6For wisdom is a spirit who loves man,
and she will not hold a blasphemer guiltless for his lips,
because God is witness of his inmost self,
and is a true overseer of his heart,
and a hearer of his tongue.
7Because the spirit of the Lord has filled the world,
and that which holds all things together knows what is said.
8Therefore no one who utters unrighteous things will be unseen;
neither will Justice, when it convicts, pass him by.
9For in his counsels the ungodly will be searched out,
and the sound of his words will come to the Lord to bring his lawless deeds to conviction;
10because a jealous ear listens to all things,
and the noise of murmurings is not hidden.
11Beware then of unprofitable murmuring,
and keep your tongue from slander;
because no secret utterance will go on its way void,
and a lying mouth destroys a soul.
12Don’t court death in the error of your life.
Don’t draw destruction upon yourselves by the works of your hands;
13because God didn’t make death,
neither does He delight when the living perish.
14For He created all things that they might have being.
The generative powers of the world are wholesome,
and there is no poison of destruction in them,
nor has Hades royal dominion upon earth;
15for righteousness is immortal,
16but ungodly men by their hands and their words summon death;
deeming him a friend they pined away.
They made a covenant with him,
because they are worthy to belong with him.
1Diligite justitiam, qui judicatis terram. Sentite de Domino in bonitate, et in simplicitate cordis quærite illum: 2quoniam invenitur ab his qui non tentant illum, apparet autem eis qui fidem habent in illum. 3Perversæ enim cogitationes separant a Deo; probata autem virtus corripit insipientes. 4Quoniam in malevolam animam non introibit sapientia, nec habitabit in corpore subdito peccatis. 5Spiritus enim sanctus disciplinæ effugiet fictum, et auferet se a cogitationibus quæ sunt sine intellectu, et corripietur a superveniente iniquitate. 6Benignus est enim spiritus sapientiæ, et non liberabit maledicum a labiis suis: quoniam renum illius testis est Deus, et cordis illius scrutator est verus, et linguæ ejus auditor. 7Quoniam spiritus Domini replevit orbem terrarum, et hoc quod continet omnia, scientiam habet vocis. 8Propter hoc qui loquitur iniqua non potest latere, nec præteriet illum corripiens judicium. 9In cogitationibus enim impii interrogatio erit; sermonum autem illius auditio ad Deum veniet, ad correptionem iniquitatum illius. 10Quoniam auris zeli audit omnia, et tumultus murmurationum non abscondetur. 11Custodite ergo vos a murmuratione quæ nihil prodest, et a detractione parcite linguæ: quoniam sermo obscurus in vacuum non ibit, os autem quod mentitur occidit animam. 12Nolite zelare mortem in errore vitæ vestræ, neque acquiratis perditionem in operibus manuum vestrarum. 13Quoniam Deus mortem non fecit, nec lætatur in perditione vivorum. 14Creavit enim ut essent omnia, et sanabiles fecit nationes orbis terrarum: et non est in illis medicamentum exterminii, nec inferorum regnum in terra. 15Justitia enim perpetua est, et immortalis. 16Impii autem manibus et verbis accersierunt illam, et æstimantes illam amicam, defluxerunt; et sponsiones posuerunt ad illam, quoniam digni sunt qui sint ex parte illius.