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,
All Commentaries on Wisdom of Solomon 11:17 Go To Wisdom of Solomon 11
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
But the "heaven of the heavens" belongs to you, Lord. And the earth that you assigned "to the children of mortals," for them to see and to touch, was not the one that we now see and touch. "It was invisible and confused," an abyss, on which no light shone. In other words, "darkness ruled over the abyss," that is, a darkness greater than that in the abyss. The abyss today, of visible waters, even in their depths have a semblance of light, perceivable in any case by fish and by the animals that crawl on the ocean floor. That other, rather, was altogether virtually nothing, because it was still absolutely without form. It was, however, such as could assume a form. You, Lord, brought forth "the world from unformed matter""what was almost nothing, drawn by you out of nothing, to bring forth the great things that we human beings admire. This is truly the marvel of these corporeal heavens, that is, of the firmament, which you created between the waters on the second day, after the light was created, saying, "Let it be so. And so it was."
