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Wisdom
This book is so called, because it treats of the excellence of Wisdom, the means to obtain it, and the happy fruits it produces. It is written in the person of Solomon, and contains his sentiments. But it is uncertain who was the writer. It abounds with instructions and exhortations to kings and all magistrates to minister justice in the commonwealth, teaching all kinds of virtues under the general names of justice and wisdom. It contains also many prophecies of Christ's coming, passion, resurrection, and other Christian mysteries. The whole may be divided into three parts. In the first six chapters, the author admonishes all superiors to love and exercise justice and wisdom. In the next three, he teacheth that wisdom proceeds only from God, and is procured by prayer and a good life. In the other ten chapters, he shows the excellent effects and utility of wisdom and justice. (For more information, see the article BOOK OF WISDOM in the Catholic Encyclopedia.)
Chapter 1. An exhortation to seek God sincerely, who cannot be deceived, and desireth not our death.
Chapter 2. The vain reasonings of the wicked: their persecuting the just, especially the Son of God.
Chapter 3. The happiness of the just: and the unhappiness of the wicked.
Chapter 4. The difference between the chaste and the adulterous generations: and between the death of the just and the wicked.
Chapter 5. The fruitless repentance of the wicked in another world: the reward of the just.
Chapter 6. An address to princes to seek after wisdom: she is easily found by those that seek her.
Chapter 7. The excellence of wisdom: how she is to be found.
Chapter 8. Further praises of wisdom: and her fruits.
Chapter 9. Solomon's prayer for wisdom.
Chapter 10. What wisdom did for Adam, Noe, Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Joseph, and the people of Israel.
Chapter 11. Other benefits of wisdom to the people of God.
Chapter 12. God's wisdom and mercy in his proceedings with the Chanaanites.
Chapter 13. Idolaters are inexcusable: and those most of all that worship for gods the works of the hands of men.
Chapter 14. The beginning of worshipping idols: and the effects thereof.
Chapter 15. The servants of God praise him who hath delivered them from idolatry; condemning both the makers and the worshippers of idols.
Chapter 16. God's different dealings with the Egyptians and with his own people.
Chapter 17. The Egyptian darkness.
Chapter 18. The slaughter of the firstborn in Egypt: the efficacy of Aaron's intercession, in the sedition on occasion of Core.
Chapter 19. Why God showed no mercy to the Egyptians. His favour to the Israelites. All creatures obey God's orders for the service of the good, and the punishment of the wicked.
