Wisdom 3

CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN	NEW JERUSALEM
1 But the souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment of death will touch them.	1 But the souls of the upright are in the hands of God, and no torment can touch them.
2 In the eyes of the foolish, they seemed to die, and their departure was considered an affliction,	2 To the unenlightened, they appeared to die, their departure was regarded as disaster,
3 and their going away from us, a banishment. Yet they are in peace.	3 their leaving us like annihilation; but they are at peace.
4 And though, in the sight of men, they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality.	4 If, as it seemed to us, they suffered punishment, their hope was rich with immortality;
5 Troubled in few things, in many things they will be well compensated, because God has tested them and found them worthy of himself.	5 slight was their correction, great wil their blessings be. God was putting them to the test and has provedthem worthy to be with him;
6 Like gold in the furnace, he has proved them, and as a holocaust victim, he has received them, and in the time of their visitation	6 he has tested them like gold in a furnace, and accepted them as a perfect burnt offering.
7 they will shine, and they will dash about like sparks among stubble.	7 At their time of visitation, they wil shine out; as sparks run through the stubble, so will they.
8 They will judge the nations and they will rule over the people, and their Lord will reign forever.	8 They wil judge nations, rule over peoples, and the Lord wil be their king for ever.
9 Those who trust in him, will understand the truth, and those who are faithful in love will rest in him, because grace and peace is for his elect.	9 Those who trust in him wil understand the truth, those who are faithful wil live with him in love; forgrace and mercy await his holy ones, and he intervenes on behalf of his chosen.
10 But the impious will be chastised according to their thoughts, for they have neglected the just and have retreated from the Lord.	10 But the godless wil be duly punished for their reasoning, for having neglected the upright and desertedthe Lord.
11 For whoever abandons wisdom and instruction is unhappy, and their hope is empty, and their labors without fruit, and their works useless.	11 Yes, wretched are they who scorn wisdom and discipline: their hope is void, their toil unavailing, theirachievements unprofitable;
12 Their wives are foolish and their sons are wicked; the things that serve them are accursed.	12 their wives are reckless, their children depraved, their descendants accursed.
13 Therefore, fertile is the barren and undefiled, who has not known transgressions in bed; she will bear fruit by caring for holy souls.	13 Blessed the sterile woman if she be blameless, and has not known an unlawful bed, for she wil havefruit at the visitation of souls.
14 And fertile is the celibate, who has not wrought iniquity with his hands, nor thought wickedness against God; for to him will be given a special gift of faith and a very welcome place in the temple of the Lord.	14 Blessed, too, the eunuch whose hand commits no crime, and who harbours no resentment against theLord: a special favour will be granted to him for his loyalty, a most desirable portion in the temple of the Lord.
15 For the fruit of good labors is glorious and the root of wisdom shall never perish.	15 For the fruit of honest labours is glorious, and the root of understanding does not decay.
16 But the sons of adulterers will not reach completion, and the offspring of a sinful bed will be banished.	16 But the children of adulterers wil not reach maturity, the offspring of an unlawful bed wil disappear.
17 And if they live long, they will be counted as nothing, and their last years of old-age will be without honor.	17 Even if they live long, they wil count for nothing, their old age wil go unhonoured at the last;
18 And if they die quickly, they will have no hope, nor words of comfort on the day of reckoning.	18 while if they die early, they have neither hope nor comfort on the day of judgement,
19 For the iniquities of the people have a dreadful result.	19 for the end of a race of evil-doers is harsh.