Wisdom 2

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
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 incorrectly: “Our lifetime is brief and tedious, and there is no relief within the limits of man, and no one is acknowledged to have returned from the dead.
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 from nothing, and after this we will be as if we had not been, because the breath in our nostrils is like smoke, and conversation sends out sparks from the stirring of our heart;
3 extinguish this and the body turns to ashes, and the spirit melts away like the yielding air.	3 therefore, when it is extinguished, our body will be ashes, and our spirit will be diffused like a soft breeze, and our life will pass away like the wisp of a cloud, just as a mist is dissolved when it is driven away by the rays of the sun and overpowered by its heat.
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 in time our name will surrender to oblivion, and no one will have 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 like the passing of a shadow, and nothing can reverse our end, for it is signed and sealed, and cannot be returned.
6 'Come then, let us enjoy the good things of today, let us use created things with the zest of youth:	6 Therefore, hurry, let us enjoy the good things of the present time, and let us quickly use up passing things, just as in youth.
7 take our fil of the dearest wines and perfumes, on no account forgo the flowers of spring	7 Let us indulge ourselves with costly wine and ointments, and let no flower of youth pass us by.
8 but crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither,	8 Let us surround ourselves with rosebuds before they wither; let no meadow be left untouched by our indulgence.
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 one among us be exempt from our indulgence. Let us leave behind tokens of enjoyment everywhere, for this is our portion, and this is fate.
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 respect the aged grey hairs of elders.
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 what is weak is found to be 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 Therefore, let us encircle the just, because he is useless to us, and he is against our works, and he reproaches us with our legal offenses, and makes known to 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 promises that he has the knowledge of God and he calls 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 was made among us to expose our very thoughts.
15 for his kind of life is not like other people's, and his ways are quite different.	15 He is grievous for us even to behold, for his life is unlike other men’s lives, and immutable 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 It is as if we are considered by him to be insignificant, and he abstains from our ways as from filth; he prefers the newly justified, and he glories that he has 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 are true, and let us test what will happen to him, and then we will know what his end will 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 is the true son of God, he will receive him and deliver him from the hands of his adversaries.
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 with insult and torture, that we may know his reverence 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, according to his own words, God will care for him.”
21 This is the way they reason, but they are misled, since their malice makes them blind.	21 These things they thought, and they were mistaken, 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 were ignorant of the mysteries of God; they neither hoped for the reward of justice, nor judged the value 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 to be immortal, and he made him in the image of his own likeness.
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,
	25 yet they imitate him, who are from his side.