What does Wisdom Chapter 18 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Light, secret sacrifice and shared good and evil contrast with enemy mourning. The Almighty word descends amid silence, followed by dreams disclosing judgment. The blameless intercessor’s ministry stops the later wilderness assault.

Chapter breakdown

Wisdom 18 contrasts saints' great light with heard voices but unseen shapes; they glorified God for not suffering the same, and formerly wronged people thanked him for being unharmed and asked for difference. A burning pillar guided an unknown way and a harmless sun gave welcome light, separately explained by the edition as an agreeable guest. Darkness punished those imprisoning the children through whom pure law-light would reach the world. Planned infant killing is contrasted with one exposed child saved to reprove them, many children taken and destruction in great water; the note names Moses. Fathers knew the night beforehand and trusted oaths; punishment of adversaries encouraged and glorified God's people.

Just children offered secret sacrifice and unanimously ordered sharing both good and evil, singing ancestral praise. The edition identifies patriarchs' Israelite children, private paschal lamb and journey preparations. Enemy cries and child mourning followed; masters and servants, kings and common people suffered alike, with innumerable dead and too few living to bury them. The edition calls the noblest offspring firstborn. Former unbelief attributed to enchantment gave way to acknowledging the people as God's, not explicitly God's son. At mid-night silence the Almighty word descended from royal heaven like a conqueror, carrying sharp sword and unfeigned command, filling all with death while reaching heaven from earth. Evil dreams and sudden fear disclosed why they suffered.

Later death touched the just in wilderness disturbance, but wrath was brief. A blameless man hastened with ministry's shield, prayer and incense, ending calamity through words invoking ancestral oath and covenant rather than arms. Standing amid dead heaps, he blocked the assault toward the living. His priestly robe bore the whole world, stones in four rows ancestral glory, diadem divine majesty; the destroyer yielded in fear. The heading identifies Aaron and Core's sedition; gold diadem, Goshen, Incarnation liturgy and a universal priestly guarantee are not local verse details.

The story inside

Opening: Light, secret sacrifice and shared good and evil contrast with enemy mourning. Development: The Almighty word descends amid silence, followed by dreams disclosing judgment. Conclusion: The blameless intercessor’s ministry stops the later wilderness assault.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Light, secret sacrifice and shared good and evil contrast with enemy mourning.
2
The Almighty word descends amid silence, followed by dreams disclosing judgment.
3
The blameless intercessor’s ministry stops the later wilderness assault.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 73029–73030
But thy saints had a very great light, and they heard their voice indeed, but did not see their shape.
Lines 73044–73046
The others indeed were worthy to be deprived of light, and imprisoned in darkness, who kept thy children shut up, by whom the pure light of the law was to be given to the world.
Lines 73095–73096
Thy Almighty word leaped down from heaven from thy royal throne, as a fierce conqueror into the midst of the land of destruction,
Lines 73115–73118
For a blameless man made haste to pry for the people, bringing forth the shield of his ministry, prayer, and by incense making supplication, withstood the wrath, and put an end to the calamity, shewing that he was thy servant.
Lines 73128–73130
For in the priestly robe which he wore, was the whole world: and in the four rows of the stones, the glory of the fathers was graven, and thy majesty was written upon the diadem of his head.