Wisdom 2

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
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 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 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 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 extinguish this and the body turns to ashes, and the spirit melts away like the yielding air.	3 And when this is quenched, our body will be ashes and our spirit will be poured abroad like unresisting air.
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 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 days are the passing of a shadow, our end is without return, the seal is affixed and nobodycomes back.	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 then, let us enjoy the good things of today, let us use created things with the zest of youth:	6 Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are real, and use the freshness of creation avidly.
7 take our fil of the dearest wines and perfumes, on no account forgo the flowers of spring	7 Let us have our fill of costly wine and perfumes, and let no springtime blossom pass us by;
8 but crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither,	8 let us crown ourselves with rosebuds ere they wither.
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 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 '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 needy just man; let us neither spare the widow nor revere the old man for his hair grown white with time.
11 Let our might be the yardstick of right, since weakness argues its own futility.	11 But let our strength be our norm of justice; for weakness proves itself useless.
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 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 claims to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.	13 He professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of the LORD.
14 We see him as a reproof to our way of thinking, the very sight of him weighs our spirits down;	14 To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us,
15 for his kind of life is not like other people's, and his ways are quite different.	15 Because his life is not like other men's, and different are his ways.
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 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 if what he says is true, and test him to see what sort of end he wil have.	17 Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him.
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 the just one be the son of God, he will defend him and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
19 Let us test him with cruelty and with torture, and thus explore this gentleness of his and put hispatience to the test.	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 since God wil rescue him -- or so he claims.'	20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him."
21 This is the way they reason, but they are misled, since their malice makes them blind.	21 These were their thoughts, but they erred; for their wickedness 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 hidden counsels of God; neither did they count on a recompense of holiness nor discern the innocent souls' reward.
23 For God created human beings to be immortal, he made them as an image of his own nature;	23 For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature 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 entered the world, and they who are in his possession experience it.