Choices

And the king said unto Cushi, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Cushi answered, The enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is. And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son! Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

But when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah. But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not. Then two concubines came to the king, and stood before him. The one woman said, "Oh, my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. Then on the third day after I was delivered, this woman also gave birth; and we were alone; there was no one else with us in the house, only we two were in the house. And this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on it. And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your maidservant slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom. When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, it was dead; but when I looked at it closely in the morning, behold, it was not the child that I had borne." But the other woman said, "No, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours." The first said, "No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine." Thus they spoke before the king. Then the king said, "The one says, `This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead'; and the other says, `No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.'" And the king said, "Bring me a sword." So a sword was brought before the king. And the king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other." Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, "Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means slay it." But the other said, "It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it." Then the king answered and said, "Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means slay it; she is its mother." And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him, to render justice. And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land. And in the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds, Azariah the son of Jeroham, and Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, and Azariah the son of Obed, and Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri, into covenant with him.

Wisdom of Solomon

"1": For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright, Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave.

"2": For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been: for the breath in our nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart:

"3": Which being extinguished, our body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air,

"4": And our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall have our works in remembrance, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and overcome with the heat thereof.

"5": For our time is a very shadow that passeth away; and after our end there is no returning: for it is fast sealed, so that no man cometh again.

"6": Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth.

"7": Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments: and let no flower of the spring pass by us:

"8": Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered:

"9": Let none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness: let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place: for this is our portion, and our lot is this.

"10": Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged.

"11": Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.

"12": Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education.

"13": He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord.

"14": He was made to reprove our thoughts.

"15": He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, his ways are of another fashion.

"16": We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his father.

"17": Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him.

"18": For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.

"19": Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.

"20": Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.

"21": Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.

"22": As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls.

"23": For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.

"24": Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.