Wisdom 2

¹ For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves, "Short and sorrowful is our life, and there is no remedy when a man comes to his end, and no one has been known to return from Hades.

² Because we were born by mere chance, and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been; because the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts.

³ When it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes, and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.

⁴ Our name will be forgotten in time and no one will remember our works; our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud, and be scattered like mist that is chased by the rays of the sun and overcome by its heat.

⁵ For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow, and there is no return from our death, because it is sealed up and no one turns back.

⁶ "Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist, and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.

⁷ Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes, and let no flower of spring pass by us.

⁸ Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.

⁹ Let none of us fail to share in our revelry, everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment, because this is our portion, and this our lot.

¹⁰ Let us oppress the righteous poor man; let us not spare the widow nor regard the gray hairs of the aged.

¹¹ But let our might be our law of right, for what is weak proves itself to be useless.

¹² "Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training.

¹³ He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.

¹⁴ He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;

¹⁵ the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange.

¹⁶ We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father.

¹⁷ Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;

¹⁸ for if the righteous man is God's son, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.

¹⁹ Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance.

²⁰ Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected."

²¹ Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them,

²² and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hope for the wages of holiness, nor discern the prize for blameless souls;

²³ for God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity,

²⁴ but through the devil's envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it.