Read & explore together
Cruelty toward guests links Egypt with another remembered judgment
This passage from the Catholic additional book of Wisdom of Solomon explains punishment by pointing to one repeated sin: cruel treatment of guests, strangers and aliens. It compares Egypt with another remembered judgment marked by darkness.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
The writer says the punishments were not without warning signs, including violent thunder. He then names hatred toward guests as a grievous wickedness. Egypt is presented as especially guilty because guests who had helped them were later enslaved, and the passage ends with a comparison to another darkness judgment.
Wisdom of Solomon 19:13–17Main takeaway
Wisdom of Solomon 19:13–17 presents hostility and cruelty toward guests and aliens as serious wickedness that receives just judgment.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Punishment and its causeThe passage opens by saying punishments came upon sinners with signs given beforehand, including violent thunder.
Explanation
The passage opens by saying punishments came upon sinners with signs given beforehand, including violent thunder. Their suffering is called just because it answered their own wickednesses. The first sin named is their grievous hatred toward guests, so the passage connects judgment directly to how they treated vulnerable people.
02Egypt did more than refuse strangersThe comparison sharpens in verse 14. One group did not receive strangers when they came. Egypt is described as worse, because the Egyptians made slaves of guests who were their benefactors.
Explanation
The comparison sharpens in verse 14. One group did not receive strangers when they came. Egypt is described as worse, because the Egyptians made slaves of guests who were their benefactors. The contrast is between failing to welcome and actively enslaving people who had already done them good.
03Receiving aliens as enemiesVerse 15 says punishment will come upon the former because they received aliens as enemies.
Explanation
Verse 15 says punishment will come upon the former because they received aliens as enemies. The stress stays on their action toward aliens. Instead of receiving them rightly, they treated them with hostility, and the passage presents that response itself as grounds for coming judgment.
04Feasting, toil and darknessEgypt’s wrong is expanded again. They first welcomed these people with feastings, then afflicted them with dreadful toils, even after they had shared the same rights.
Explanation
Egypt’s wrong is expanded again. They first welcomed these people with feastings, then afflicted them with dreadful toils, even after they had shared the same rights. The passage closes by comparing them with others struck with loss of sight and darkness at a righteous man’s doors, an image of judgment and confusion.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What two things in verse 13 show that the punishments were not random?
Notice both the warning signs beforehand and the statement that the suffering was just because of their wickedness, especially hatred toward guests.
02How does verse 14 make Egypt’s guilt sound worse than simply not receiving strangers?
Compare the action of not receiving strangers with the stronger charge of enslaving guests who were benefactors.
03What contrast in verses 16 and 17 highlights the seriousness of Egypt’s treatment?
Trace the movement from welcoming with feastings to afflicting with dreadful toils, then to the comparison with loss of sight and darkness.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Wisdom of Solomon 19:13–17
13Punishments came upon the sinners, not without the signs that were given beforehand by the violence of the thunder, for they justly suffered through their own wickednesses, for the hatred which they practiced toward guests was grievous indeed.
14For while the others didn’t receive the strangers when they came to them, the Egyptians made slaves of guests who were their benefactors.
15And not only so, but while punishment of some sort will come upon the former, since they received as enemies those who were aliens;
16because these first welcomed with feastings, and then afflicted with dreadful toils, those who had already shared with them in the same rights.
17And moreover they were stricken with loss of sight (even as were those others at the righteous man’s doors), when, being surrounded with yawning darkness, they each looked for the passage through his own door.