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Wisdom of Solomon 2

1For they said within themselves, with unsound reasoning, “Our life is short and sorrowful. There is no healing when a man comes to his end, and no one was ever known who was released from Hades.
1For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright, Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave.
2Because we were born by mere chance, and hereafter we will be as though we had never been, because the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our heart,
2For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been: for the breath in our nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart:
3which being extinguished, the body will be turned into ashes, and the spirit will be dispersed as thin air.
3Which being extinguished, our body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air,
4Our name will be forgotten in time. No one will remember our works. Our life will pass away as the traces of a cloud, and will be scattered as is a mist, when it is chased by the rays of the sun, and overcome by its heat.
4And our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall have our works in remembrance, and our 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 allotted time is the passing of a shadow, and our end doesn’t retreat, because it is securely sealed, and no one turns it back.
5For our time is a very shadow that passeth away; and after our end there is no returning: for it is fast sealed, so that no man cometh again.
6“Come therefore and let’s enjoy the good things that exist. Let’s use the creation earnestly as in our youth.
6Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth.
7Let’s fill ourselves with costly wine and perfumes, and let no spring flower pass us by.
7Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments: and let no flower of the spring pass by us:
8Let’s crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.
8Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered:
9Let none of us go without his share in our proud revelry. Let’s leave tokens of mirth everywhere, because this is our portion, and this is our lot.
9Let none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness: let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place: for this is our portion, and our lot is this.
10Let’s oppress the righteous poor. Let’s not spare the widow, nor regard the gray hair of the old man.
10Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged.
11But let our strength be a law of righteousness; for that which is weak is proven useless.
11Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.
12But let’s lie in wait for the righteous man, because he annoys us, is contrary to our works, reproaches us with sins against the law, and charges us with sins against our training.
12Therefore let 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 professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.
13He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord.
14He became to us a reproof of our thoughts.
14He was made to reprove our thoughts.
15He is grievous to us even to look at, because his life is unlike other men’s, and his paths are strange.
15He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, his ways are of another fashion.
16We were regarded by him as something worthless, and he abstains from our ways as from uncleanness. He calls the latter end of the righteous happy. He boasts that God is his father.
16We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his father.
17Let’s see if his words are true. Let’s test what will happen at the end of his life.
17Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him.
18For if the righteous man is God’s son, he will uphold him, and he will deliver him out of the hand of his adversaries.
18For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.
19Let’s test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and test his patience.
19Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.
20Let’s condemn him to a shameful death, for he will be protected, according to his words.”
20Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.
21Thus they reasoned, and they were led astray; for their wickedness blinded them,
21Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.
22and they didn’t know the mysteries of God, neither did they hope for wages of holiness, nor did they discern that there is a prize for blameless souls.
22As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls.
23Because God created man for incorruption, and made him an image of his own everlastingness;
23For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.
24but death entered into the world by the envy of the devil, and those who belong to him experience it.
24Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.