Wisdom of Solomon 2

For ^athe ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright, ^bOur life is short and tedious, and ^cin the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have ^dreturned from the grave. ²For we are born at all adventure: and ^ewe shall be hereafter as though we had never been: for the breath in our nostrils is as ^fsmoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart: ³which being extinguished, ^gour body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air, ⁴and ^hour name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall have our works in remembrance, and ⁱour life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and overcome with the heat thereof. ⁵For our time is ^ja very shadow that passeth away; and after our end there is no returning: for it is ^kfast sealed, so that no man cometh again. ⁶Come on therefore, ^llet us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth. ⁷Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments: and let no flower of the spring pass by us: ⁸let us ^llcrown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered: ⁹let none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness: let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place: ^mfor this is our portion, and our lot is this. ¹⁰Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged. ¹¹Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble ⁿis found to be nothing worth. ¹²Therefore ^olet us lie in wait for the righteous; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education. ¹³He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord. ^14pHe was made ^qto reprove our thoughts. ^15rHe is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, his ways are of another fashion. ¹⁶We are esteemed of him as ^scounterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: ^the pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and ^umaketh his boast that God is his father. ¹⁷Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in ^wthe end of him. ¹⁸For ^xif the just man be ^uthe son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies. ^19yLet us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his ^zmeekness, and prove his ^apatience. ²⁰Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for ^bby his own saying he shall be ^crespected.

²¹Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for ^dtheir own wickedness hath blinded them. ²²As for the ^emysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls. ^23fFor God created man to be immortal, and made him to be ^gan image of his own eternity. ²⁴Nevertheless ^hthrough envy of the devil came death into the world: and ⁱthey that do hold of his side do find it.

III.