11:1 She prospered their works in the hand of the holy prophet.

11:2 They went through the wilderness that was not inhabited, and pitched tents in places where there lay no way.

11:3 They stood against their enemies, and were avenged of their adversaries.

11:4 When they were thirsty, they called upon thee, and water was given them out of the flinty rock, and their thirst was quenched out of the hard stone.

11:5 For by what things their enemies were punished, by the same they in their need were benefited.

11:6 For instead of a fountain of a perpetual running river troubled with foul blood,

11:7 for a manifest reproof of that commandment, whereby the infants were slain, thou gavest unto them abundance of water by a means which they hoped not for:

11:8 declaring by that thirst then how thou hadst punished their adversaries.

11:9 For when they were tried, albeit but in mercy chastised, they knew how the ungodly were judged in wrath and tormented, thirsting in another manner than the just.

11:10 For these thou didst admonish and try, as a merciful Lord: but the others, as a severe king, thou didst condemn and punish.

11:11 Whether they were absent or present, they were vexed alike.

11:12 For a double grief came upon them, and a groaning for the remembrance of things past.

11:13 For when they heard by their own punishments the other to be benefited, they had some feeling of the Lord.

11:14 For whom they rejected with scorn, when he was long before thrown out at the casting forth [of the infants], him in the end, when they saw what came to pass, they admired.

11:15 But for the foolish devices of their wickedness, wherewith being deceived they worshipped serpents void of reason, and vile beasts, thou didst send a multitude of unreasonable beasts upon them for vengeance:

11:16 that they might know, that wherewithal a man sinneth, by the same shall he be punished.

11:17 For thy Almighty hand, that made the world of matter without form, wanted not means to send among them a multitude of bears, or fierce lions,

11:18 or unknown wild beasts, full of rage, newly created, breathing out either a fiery vapour, or filthy scents of scattered smoke, or shooting horrible sparkles out of their eyes:

11:19 whereof not only the harm might dispatch them at once, but also the terrible sight utterly destroy them.

11:20 Yea, and without these might they have fallen down with one blast, being persecuted of vengeance, and scattered abroad through the breath of thy power: but thou hast ordered all things in measure and number and weight.

11:21 For thou canst shew thy great strength at all times when thou wilt; and who may withstand the power of thine arm?

11:22 For the whole world before thee is as a little grain of the balance, yea, as a drop of the morning dew that falleth down upon the earth.

11:23 But thou hast mercy upon all; for thou canst do all things, and winkest at the sins of men, because they should amend.

11:24 For thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which thou hast made: for never wouldest thou have made any thing, if thou hadst hated it.

11:25 And how could any thing have endured, if it had not been thy will? or been preserved, if not called by thee?

11:26 But thou sparest all: for they are thine, O Lord, thou lover of souls.