5 Then the righteous will stand with great confidence

in the presence of those who have oppressed them

and those who make light of their labors.

2 When the unrighteousa see them, they will be shaken with dreadful fear,

and they will be amazed at the unexpected salvation of the righteous.

3 They will speak to one another in repentance,

and in anguish of spirit they will groan, and say,

4 “These are persons whom we once held in derision

and made a byword of reproach—fools that we were!

We thought that their lives were madness

and that their end was without honor.

5 Why have they been numbered among the children of God?

And why is their lot among the saints?

6 So it was we who strayed from the way of truth,

and the light of righteousness did not shine on us,

and the sun did not rise upon us.

7 We took our fill of the paths of lawlessness and destruction,

and we journeyed through trackless deserts,

but the way of the Lord we have not known.

8 What has our arrogance profited us?

And what good has our boasted wealth brought us?

9 “All those things have vanished like a shadow,

and like a rumor that passes by;

10 like a ship that sails through the billowy water,

and when it has passed no trace can be found,

no track of its keel in the waves;

11 or as, when a bird flies through the air,

no evidence of its passage is found;

the light air, lashed by the beat of its pinions

and pierced by the force of its rushing flight,

is traversed by the movement of its wings,

and afterward no sign of its coming is found there;

12 or as, when an arrow is shot at a target,

the air, thus divided, comes together at once,

so that no one knows its pathway.

13 So we also, as soon as we were born, ceased to be,

and we had no sign of virtue to show,

but were consumed in our wickedness.”

14 Because the hope of the ungodly is like thistledownb carried by the wind,

and like a light frostc driven away by a storm;

it is dispersed like smoke before the wind,

and it passes like the remembrance of a guest who stays but a day.