Wisdom 3

¹ But the souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment of death will touch them.

² In the eyes of the foolish, they seemed to die, and their departure was considered an affliction,

³ and their going away from us, a banishment. Yet they are in peace.

⁴ And though, in the sight of men, they suffered torments, their hope is full of 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.

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

⁷ they will shine, and they will dash about like sparks among stubble.

⁸ They will judge the nations and they will rule over the people, and their Lord will reign forever.

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.

¹⁰ But the impious will be chastised according to their thoughts, for they have neglected the just and have retreated from the Lord.

¹¹ For whoever abandons wisdom and instruction is unhappy, and their hope is empty, and their labors without fruit, and their works useless.

¹² Their wives are foolish and their sons are wicked; the things that serve them are 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.

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.

¹⁵ For the fruit of good labors is glorious and the root of wisdom shall never perish.

¹⁶ But the sons of adulterers will not reach completion, and the offspring of a sinful bed will be banished.

¹⁷ And if they live long, they will be counted as nothing, and their last years of old-age will be without honor.

¹⁸ And if they die quickly, they will have no hope, nor words of comfort on the day of reckoning.

¹⁹ For the iniquities of the people have a dreadful result.