Wisdom 2

¹ they who said among themselves, thinking not aright: "Brief and troublous is our lifetime; neither is there any remedy for man's dying, nor is anyone known to have come back from the nether world.

² For haphazard were we born, and hereafter we shall be as though we had not been; Because the breath in our nostrils is a smoke and reason is a spark at the beating of our hearts,

³ And when this is quenched, our body will be ashes and our spirit will be poured abroad like unresisting air.

⁴ Even our name will be forgotten in time, and no one will recall our deeds. So our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud, and will be dispersed like a mist pursued by the sun's rays and overpowered by its heat.

⁵ For our lifetime is the passing of a shadow; and our dying cannot be deferred because it is fixed with a seal; and no one returns.

⁶ Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are real, and use the freshness of creation avidly.

⁷ Let us have our fill of costly wine and perfumes, and let no springtime blossom pass us by;

⁸ let us crown ourselves with rosebuds ere they wither.

⁹ Let no meadow be free from our wantonness; everywhere let us leave tokens of our rejoicing, for this our portion is, and this our lot.

¹⁰ Let us oppress the needy just man; let us neither spare the widow nor revere the old man for his hair grown white with time.

¹¹ But let our strength be our norm of justice; for weakness proves itself useless.

¹² Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, Reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training.

¹³ He professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of the LORD.

¹⁴ To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us,

¹⁵ Because his life is not like other men's, and different are his ways.

¹⁶ He judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure. He calls blest the destiny of the just and boasts that God is his Father.

¹⁷ Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him.

¹⁸ For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him and deliver him from the hand of his foes.

¹⁹ With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience.

²⁰ Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him."

²¹ These were their thoughts, but they erred; for their wickedness blinded them,

²² And they knew not the hidden counsels of God; neither did they count on a recompense of holiness nor discern the innocent souls' reward.

²³ For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him.

²⁴ But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who are in his possession experience it.