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Guided reading · 8 passages

What the 73rd page adds

Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, Tobit, and 2 Maccabees carry links most Protestant maps never draw. That is a reason to use the Catholic set.

01

Tobit 4:15

Do to no one what you hate

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4:15And whoever has done any kind of work for you, immediately pay him his wages, and do not let the wages of your hired hand remain with you at all

02

Wisdom 2:12–20

The just man condemned

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2:12Therefore, let us encircle the just, because he is useless to us, and he is against our works, and he reproaches us with our legal offenses, and makes known to us the sins of our way of life

2:13He promises that he has the knowledge of God and he calls himself the son of God

2:14He was made among us to expose our very thoughts

2:15He is grievous for us even to behold, for his life is unlike other men’s lives, and immutable are his ways

Excerpt · 5 more verses on passage page
03

Wisdom 3:1–9

The souls of the just are in the hand of God

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3:1But the souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment of death will touch them

3:2In the eyes of the foolish, they seemed to die, and their departure was considered an affliction

3:3and their going away from us, a banishment. Yet they are in peace

3:4And though, in the sight of men, they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality

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04

Wisdom 16:20–21

Bread ready without labor

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16:20Instead of these things, you nourished your people with the food of angels, and, having prepared bread from heaven, you served them without labor that which holds within itself every delight and the sweetness of every flavor

16:21For your nature showed your sweetness, which you hold within your sons, and serving the will of each one, it was converted to what each one preferred

05

Sirach 24:19–22

Come to me, eat of my fruit

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24:19I was exalted like a beautiful olive tree in the plains, and like a sycamore tree beside the waters along a wide road

24:20I gave off an aromatic fragrance like cinnamon or balsam. I produced a sweet odor like the best myrrh

24:21And I perfumed my dwelling place with sweet gum, and aromatic resin, and flower petals, and aloe, as well as the finest cedar from Lebanon. And my fragrance is like undiluted balsam

24:22I have extended my branches like a terebinth tree, and my branches are of honor and grace

06

Baruch 3:35–38

Wisdom appeared on earth

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3:35They were called, and so they said, “Here we are,” and they shined with cheerfulness to him who made them

3:36This is our God, and no other can compare to him

3:37He invented the way of all instruction, and delivered it to Jacob his child, and to Israel his beloved

3:38After this, he was seen on earth, and he conversed with men

07

2 Maccabees 7:1–29

The seven brothers

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7:1And it happened also that seven brothers, united with their mother, were apprehended and compelled by the king to eat the flesh of swine against divine law, being tormented with scourges and whips

7:2But one of them, who was first, spoke in this way: “What would you ask, or what would you want to learn from us? We are ready to die, rather than to betray the laws that our fathers received from God.

7:3And so the king, being angry, ordered frying pans and bronze caldrons to be heated. When these were presently heated

7:4he ordered the tongue of him who had spoken first to be cut off, and, once the skin of his head had been pulled off, likewise his hands and feet to be cut off at the top, while the rest of his brothers and his mother were watching

Excerpt · 25 more verses on passage page
08

2 Maccabees 12:43–46

Sacrifice for the dead

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12:43And, calling an assembly, he sent twelve thousand drachmas of silver to Jerusalem, to be offered for a sacrifice for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously about the resurrection

12:44(for if he had not hoped that those who had fallen would be resurrected, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,

12:45and because he considered that those who had fallen asleep with piety had great grace stored up for them

12:46Therefore, it is a holy and beneficial thought to pray on behalf of those who have passed away, so that they may be released from sins