2 For they did not reason soundly, but said to themselves,
Our life is short and miserable,
And there is no cure when man comes to his end,
And no one has been known to return from Hades.
2. For we were born at a venture,
And hereafter we shall be as though we had never existed,
Because the breath in our nostrils is smoke,
And reason is a spark in the beating of our hearts;
3 When it is quenched, the body will turn to ashes,
And the spirit will dissolve like empty air.
4 And in time our name will be forgotten,
And no one will remember what we have done,
And our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud,
And be scatter like mist
Pursued by the sun's rays
And overcome by its heat.
5 For our life is a fleeting shadow,
And there is no way to recall our end,
For it is sealed up and no one can bring it back.
6 So come, let us enjoy the good things that exist,
And eagerly make use of the creation as we did in our youth.
7 Let us have our fill of costly wine and perfumes,
And let us not miss the spring flowers.
8 Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither;
9 Let none of us miss his share in our revelry;
Everywhere let us leave the signs of our gladness;
For this is our portion and this is our lot.
10 Let us oppress the upright poor;
Let us not spare the widow,
Or respect the venerable gray head of the aged.
11 But let our strength be our law of uprightness,
For weakness is proved useless.
12 Let us lie in wait for the upright, for he inconveniences us
And opposes our doings,
And reproaches us with our transgressions of the Law,
And charges us with sins against what we have been
taught;
13 He professes to possess knowledge of God,
And calls himself a child of the Lord;
14 We have found him a reproof of our thoughts,
He is wearisome to us even to see,
15 For his life is not like others,
And his ways are strange.
16 He considers us counterfeit,
And avoids our ways as unclean.
He calls the end of the upright happy,
And boasts that God is his father.
17 Let us see whether what he says is true,
And let us test what will happen at his departure.
18 For if the upright man is a son of God, he will help him,
And save him from the hands of his adversaries.
19 Let us test him with insults and torture,
So that we may learn his patience,
And prove his forbearance.
20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
For he will be watched over, from what he says!
21 So they reasoned, but they went astray,
For their wickedness blinded them,
22 And they did not know God's secrets,
Or hope for the reward of holiness,
Or recognize the prize of blameless souls.
23 For God created man for immortality,
And made him the image of his own eternity,
24 But through the devil's envy death came into the world,
And those who belong to his party experience it.
3 But the souls of the upright are in the hand of God,
And no torment can reach them.
2 In the eyes of the foolish people they seemed to die,
And their decease was thought an affliction,
3 And their departure from us their ruin,
But they are at peace.
4 Their hope is full of immortality,
5 And after being disciplined a little, they will be shown
great kindness.
For God has tried them,
And found them worthy of himself.
6 He has tested them like gold in a furnace,
And accepted them like the sacrifice of a whole burnt
offering.
7 They will shine out, when he visits them,
And spread like the sparks among the stubble.
8 They will judge nations and rule peoples,
And the Lord will reign over them forever.
9 Those who trust in him will understand the truth,
And those who are faithful will cling to him in love,
For his chosen will find favor and mercy.
10 But the ungodly will be punished according to their
reasonings,
For they disregarded what was right and turned away from the Lord,
11 For the man who makes light of wisdom and instruction is wretched,
And there is nothing in their hope, and their labors are
unprofitable,
And what they do is useless.
12 Their wives are silly,
And their children bad;
There is a curse on their birth.
13 For happy is the barren woman who is undefiled,
Who has not experienced a sinful union;
She will have fruit when God examines men's souls.
14 And happy is the eunuch who has not transgressed the
Law with his hand,
Nor imagined wicked things against the Lord,
For special favor shall be shown to him for his faith,
And a more delightful share in the Lord's sanctuary.
15 For good work brings renown,
And the root of understanding is unerring.
16 But the children of adulterers will not grow up,
And the offspring of an illicit union will disappear.
17 For if they are long-lived, they will be thought of no account,
And, at the last, their old age will be unhonored.
18 If they die early, they will have no hope
Or comfort on the day of decision.
19 For the fate of an unrighteous generation is hard.
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