Wisdom 2

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 And this is the false argument they use, 'Our life is short and dreary, there is no remedy when our endcomes, no one is known to have come back from Hades.	1 For they have said, reasoning with themselves, but not right: The time of our life is short and tedious, and in the end of a man there is no remedy, and no man hath been known to have returned from hell:
2 We came into being by chance and afterwards shal be as though we had never been. The breath in ournostrils is a puff of smoke, reason a spark from the beating of our hearts;	2 For we are born of nothing, and after this we shall be as if we had not been: for the breath in our nostrils is smoke: and speech a spark to move our heart,
3 extinguish this and the body turns to ashes, and the spirit melts away like the yielding air.	3 Which being put out, our body shall be ashes, and our spirit shall be poured abroad as soft air, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, which is driven away by the beams of the sun, and overpowered with the heat thereof:
4 In time, our name wil be forgotten, nobody wil remember what we have done; our life will pass awaylike wisps of cloud, dissolving like the mist that the sun's rays drive away and that its heat dispels.	4 And our name in time shall be forgotten, and no man shall have any remembrance of our works.
5 For our days are the passing of a shadow, our end is without return, the seal is affixed and nobodycomes back.	5 For our time is as the passing of a shadow, and there is no going back of our end: for it is fast sealed, and no man returneth.
6 'Come then, let us enjoy the good things of today, let us use created things with the zest of youth:	6 Come therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that are present, and let us speedily use the creatures as in youth.
7 take our fil of the dearest wines and perfumes, on no account forgo the flowers of spring	7 Let us fill ourselves with costly wine, and ointments: and let not the flower of the time pass by us.
8 but crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither,	8 Let us crown ourselves with roses, before they be withered: let no meadow escape our riot.
9 no meadow excluded from our orgy; let us leave the signs of our revelry everywhere, since this is ourportion, this our lot!	9 Let none of us go without his part in luxury: let us everywhere leave tokens of joy: for this is our portion, and this our lot.
10 'As for the upright man who is poor, let us oppress him; let us not spare the widow, nor respect oldage, white-haired with many years.	10 Let us oppress the poor just man, and not spare the widow, nor honour the ancient grey hairs of the aged.
11 Let our might be the yardstick of right, since weakness argues its own futility.	11 But let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble, is found to be nothing worth.
12 Let us lay traps for the upright man, since he annoys us and opposes our way of life, reproaches us forour sins against the Law, and accuses us of sins against our upbringing.	12 Let us therefore lie in wait for the just, because he is not for our turn, and he is contrary to our doings, and upbraideth us with transgressions of the law, and divulgeth against us the sins of our way of life.
13 He claims to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.	13 He boasteth that he hath the knowledge of God, and calleth himself the son of God.
14 We see him as a reproof to our way of thinking, the very sight of him weighs our spirits down;	14 He is become a censurer of our thoughts.
15 for his kind of life is not like other people's, and his ways are quite different.	15 He is grievous unto us, even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, and his ways are very different.
16 In his opinion we are counterfeit; he avoids our ways as he would filth; he proclaims the final end of theupright as blessed and boasts of having God for his father.	16 We are esteemed by him as triflers, and he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness, and he preferreth the latter end of the just, and glorieth that he hath God for his father.
17 Let us see if what he says is true, and test him to see what sort of end he wil have.	17 Let us see then if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen to him, and we shall know what his end shall be.
18 For if the upright man is God's son, God wil help him and rescue him from the clutches of hisenemies.	18 For if he be the true son of God, he will defend him, and will deliver him from the hands of his enemies.
19 Let us test him with cruelty and with torture, and thus explore this gentleness of his and put hispatience to the test.	19 Let us examine him by outrages and tortures, that we may know his meekness and try his patience.
20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death since God wil rescue him -- or so he claims.'	20 Let us condemn him to a most shameful death: for there shall be respect had unto him by his words.
21 This is the way they reason, but they are misled, since their malice makes them blind.	21 These things they thought, and were deceived: for their own malice blinded them.
22 They do not know the hidden things of God, they do not hope for the reward of holiness, they do notbelieve in a reward for blameless souls.	22 And they knew not the secrets of God, nor hoped for the wages of justice, nor esteemed the honour of holy souls.
23 For God created human beings to be immortal, he made them as an image of his own nature;	23 For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his own likeness he made him.
24 Death came into the world only through the Devil's envy, as those who belong to him find to their cost.	24 But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world:
	25 And they follow him that are of his side.