II. 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. 2 For 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: 3 which being extinguished, gour body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the * soft air, 4 and 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. 5 For 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. 6 Come on therefore, llet us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us * speedily use the creatures like as in youth. 7 Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments: and let no flower of the spring pass by us: 8 let us llcrown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered: 9 let 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. 10 Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged. 11 Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble nis found to be nothing worth. 12 Therefore 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. 13 He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord. 14 pHe was made qto reprove our thoughts. 15 rHe is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, his ways are of another fashion. 16 We 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. 17 Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in wthe end of him. 18 For xif the just man be uthe son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies. 19 yLet us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his zmeekness, and prove his apatience. 20 Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for bby his own saying he shall be crespected.

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