Chapter Nine

Prayer on behalf of Solomon for the sending of wisdom. 1–4. Confession of God’s goodness, almightiness, and wisdom, and the high calling of humanity. 5–8. Indication of personal life circumstances. 9–19. Without wisdom, humanity cannot know the will of God and fulfill its calling.

Wisdom 9:1. God of our ancestors and Lord of mercy, you have made all things by your word 1–4. Introduction to Solomon’s prayer. The writer speaks of divine goodness, almightiness, and wisdom, and of the highest calling of humanity. 1. In his address, the writer expresses the thought that God, in consequence of his relationship to Israel (“God of our ancestors”), by reason of his mercy, and in virtue of his almightiness, will want and is able to endow him with wisdom.

Wisdom 9:2. And by your wisdom you created humanity, so that they might have dominion over the creatures you made Wisdom 9:3. And govern the world in holiness and righteousness, and judge with an upright soul! 2–3. The next ground for why pseudo-Solomon hopes for the fulfillment of his prayer is introduced. This ground is in the high calling of humanity. Humanity, by its very creation, was appointed by divine Wisdom to have dominion over nature and the high governance of the world (Gen 2:19-20; Ps 8:7; Sir 18:1-4). Such a task makes the assimilation of divine Wisdom necessary for him. “…govern the world in holiness and righteousness...” Both these concepts (“holiness and righteousness”) are often joined together in Holy Scripture (Luke 1:75; Eph 4:24); the first means the soul’s orientation toward God, the second determines proper relations to one’s neighbors.

Wisdom 9:4. Give me the wisdom that sits beside your throne and do not reject me from among your servants, 4. “Give me the wisdom that sits beside your throne...” Poetic personification of Wisdom, as above (Wis 6:14). “Do not reject me from among your servants” – cf. verse Wis 2:13.

Wisdom 9:5. For I am your servant and the son of your maidservant, a weak human being with little time to live and limited in understanding of judgment and laws. Wisdom 9:6. Even if one were perfect among the children of humanity, without your wisdom they would be regarded as nothing. Wisdom 9:7. You have chosen me as king of your people and as a judge of your sons and daughters; Wisdom 9:8. You have commanded me to build a temple on your holy mountain and an altar in the city of your dwelling, a copy of the holy tent that you prepared from the beginning. 5–8. The king motivates his request by the circumstances of his personal life; in verses 5–6, he points to his natural weakness, common to him with all other people, while in verses 7–8 he points to his high calling given by God: 1) to be king of Israel, and 2) to build a temple.

Wisdom 9:9. With you is wisdom, which knows your works and was present when you made the world, and understands what is pleasing in your sight and what is right according to your commandments: 9–12. To fulfill his high calling, the king can do so only with the help of Wisdom as a divine power; therefore, he asks God to send it from the holy heavens. 9. “Wisdom... knows your works...” (see Wis 8:4); “was present (parousa) when you made the world.” Here the thought is not merely of wisdom’s presence at creation, but also of its participation in creation (cf. Prov 3:19).

Wisdom 9:10. Send her out from your holy heavens, and from the throne of your glory send her, so that she may labor beside me, and that I may learn what is pleasing in your sight; 10. “Send her out from your holy heavens...” Heaven is called holy as the place of God’s presence. However, if here God with wisdom is represented as dwelling in heaven, in other places of our book the idea of God’s omnipresence is expressed very clearly (see Wis 1:7); from this it follows that the word “heaven” cannot be taken here in a literal and topographical sense, but should be understood symbolically as the supersensible infinite world. “From the throne of your glory send...” “The throne of glory” is an image of God’s majesty.

Wisdom 9:11. For she knows all things and understands them, and will wisely guide me in my actions and guard me in her glory; Wisdom 9:12. And so my works will be acceptable, and I shall judge your people justly, and shall be worthy of the throne of my father. Wisdom 9:13. For what human being can know the counsel of God? Or who can perceive what the Lord desires? 13–17. The one praying turns again to his own person and gives his thoughts a general direction. Whereas up to this point he spoke regarding his calling as king, now he speaks of himself as a human being in general, that without wisdom it is impossible for him to know divine will; and the reason for this he points out (verse 15) in the dependence of the human spirit on the material body. 13. Cf. Isa 40:13; Jdt 8:13-14; Rom 11:34; 2 Cor 3:5.

Wisdom 9:14. The thoughts of mortals are timid, and our designs are uncertain, Wisdom 9:15. For a corruptible body weighs down the soul, and this earthly dwelling burdens the anxious mind. 15. “A corruptible body weighs down the soul.” The adjective “corruptible” (phtharten), by which the body is named here, is in its meaning close to the concept of material, earthly; hence fleeting, perishable. “This earthly dwelling burdens the anxious mind.” The comparison of the body with a dwelling is often found in Holy Scripture (Job 4:19; Isa 38:12; 2 Cor 5:4; 2 Pet 1:13); it was also widely used among ancient philosophers: the Pythagoreans and Neoplatonists. For the Hebrews, this image pointed only to the inconstancy and perishability of the present; for the Greek philosophers, for our writer, and for Philo, this comparison contained further an indication of the true life of the human soul before union with the body, in comparison with which present life is only temporary dwelling in an earthly “dwelling.” The conditions of the soul’s life in this world are unfavorable for it. The corruptible body, into which it has entered, depresses its strivings toward the heavenly and divine. Like a weight, the body draws the soul down toward the earth; like a prison, this “earthly dwelling” constrains and limits the mental vision of humanity to the realm of the perishable.

Wisdom 9:16. We can barely understand the things that are on earth, and what is close at hand we understand with difficulty; but who has traced out the things in heaven? 16. The expression “what is close at hand” means direct proximity (Wis 19:3) and hence accessibility and ease of knowing the subject. “We can barely understand the things that are on earth, and what is close at hand we understand with difficulty; but who has traced out the things in heaven.” Does the writer here speak of the incomprehensibility of the supersensible world, or is his discourse only about the unknowability to humanity of God’s predestination concerning it? In favor of the latter interpretation speak verses 13 and 17 of this chapter. A similar thought is expressed in the Gospel of John (John 3:12).

Wisdom 9:17. But who has learned your counsel, unless you have given wisdom and sent your holy Spirit from on high? 17. This verse establishes the identity of Wisdom and the Spirit of God (cf. Wis 1:5). However, on the basis of this passage, as well as of the parallel passages cited, one cannot say with precision whether the writer of our book represented divine Wisdom as a personal being, or understood it as a divine spiritual power; for in some places of the book, the concept of it transitions into the concept of an attribute and action of God in the world and in humanity.

Wisdom 9:18. And so the paths of those living on earth were made right, and people learned what pleases you, Wisdom 9:19. And were saved by wisdom. 18–19. Here, evidently, the end of the prayer is marked; for in the next chapter God is spoken of in the third person (verse Wis 10:5).