Read & explore together
Do not invite the death that God did not create
This wisdom passage warns people not to pull destruction towards themselves. It says God did not make death, but created things to exist, while ungodly people welcome what leads away from life.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
Wisdom of Solomon 1:12–16 is part of the Catholic additional books. In these verses, the speaker gives a direct warning, then explains it: God did not make death, creation is described as wholesome, righteousness is immortal, and ungodly people summon death by what they say and do.
Wisdom of Solomon 1:12–16Main takeaway
The passage urges readers to reject ungodliness because it links God with life and righteousness, not with delight in death.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Do not draw ruin to yourselfThe opening commands are personal and direct: do not court death or draw destruction on yourselves.
Explanation
The opening commands are personal and direct: do not court death or draw destruction on yourselves. The warning connects ruin with “the error of your life” and “the works of your hands”, so the text points to choices and actions that move in a destructive direction.
02God did not make deathThe reason follows immediately. God did not make death and does not delight when the living perish.
Explanation
The reason follows immediately. God did not make death and does not delight when the living perish. Instead, he created all things “that they might have being”. The passage presents God as the source of existence, not as one who enjoys the end of life.
03Creation and righteousnessThe world’s “generative powers” are called wholesome. The text also says there is no “poison of destruction” in them, and Hades has no royal dominion on earth.
Explanation
The world’s “generative powers” are called wholesome. The text also says there is no “poison of destruction” in them, and Hades has no royal dominion on earth. Then comes the brief line, “righteousness is immortal”, which sharpens the life-and-death contrast.
04Ungodliness welcomes deathThe final verse describes ungodly people as summoning death by their hands and words. They treat him like a friend and make a covenant with him.
Explanation
The final verse describes ungodly people as summoning death by their hands and words. They treat him like a friend and make a covenant with him. This is strong poetic language showing how seriously the passage views ungodliness and its outcome.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What does the passage say can draw destruction onto a person?
Look at the links between “the error of your life”, “the works of your hands”, and later “their hands and their words”.
02How does this passage describe God’s relation to death and life?
Notice both what God does not do with death and what he does do in creating things to have being.
03How does verse 15 stand against verse 16?
Compare “righteousness is immortal” with the picture of ungodly people summoning death and making a covenant with him.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Wisdom of Solomon 1:12–16
12Don’t court death in the error of your life. Don’t draw destruction upon yourselves by the works of your hands;
13because God didn’t make death, neither does he delight when the living perish.
14For he created all things that they might have being. The generative powers of the world are wholesome, and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor has Hades royal dominion upon earth;
15for righteousness is immortal,
16but ungodly men by their hands and their words summon death; deeming him a friend they pined away. They made a covenant with him, because they are worthy to belong with him.