13 For it is you, O Lord, who holds the power of life and death; you both lead to the threshold of death and you restore.
14 Yet man, indeed, kills his own soul through malice, and when his spirit goes forth, it will not be returned, nor will he call back his soul when it has been received.
15 But it is impossible to escape your hand.
16 For the impious, having refused to know you, have been scourged by the strength of your arm, enduring persecution by unusual waters, and by hailstorms, and by rain storms, and being consumed by fire.
17 For there was something extraordinary in water, which extinguishes all things; it has prevailed more than fire; for the world is the defender of the just.
18 Indeed, at a certain time, the fire was subdued, so as not to burn away the animals, which were sent against the impious; and so that, in seeing this, they might know that they are suffering persecution by the judgment of God.
19 And, at another time, fire burned, beyond its own power, in the midst of water, and it flared up from all around, so as to destroy the nations of an unjust land.