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2For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,
‘Short and sorrowful is our life,
and there is no remedy when a life comes to its end,
and no one has been known to return from Hades.
² For we were born by mere chance,
and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been,
for the breath in our nostrils is smoke,
and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts;
³ when it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes,
and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.
⁴ Our name will be forgotten in time,
and no one will remember our works;
our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud,
and be scattered like mist
that is chased by the rays of the sun
and overcome by its heat.
⁵ For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow,
and there is no return from our death,
because it is sealed up and no one turns back.

⁶ ‘Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist,
and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.
⁷ Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes,
and let no flower of spring pass us by.
⁸ Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.
⁹ Let none of us fail to share in our revelry;
everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment,
because this is our portion, and this our lot.
¹⁰ Let us oppress the righteous poor man;
let us not spare the widow
or regard the grey hairs of the aged.
¹¹ But let our might be our law of right,
for what is weak proves itself to be useless.

¹² ‘Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,
because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law,
and accuses us of sins against our training.
¹³ He professes to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a child^* of the Lord.
¹⁴ He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
¹⁵ the very sight of him is a burden to us,
because his manner of life is unlike that of others,
and his ways are strange.
¹⁶ We are considered by him as something base,
and he avoids our ways as unclean;
he calls the last end of the righteous happy,
and boasts that God is his father.
¹⁷ Let us see if his words are true,
and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;
¹⁸ for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him,
and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.
¹⁹ Let us test him with insult and torture,
so that we may find out how gentle he is,
and make trial of his forbearance.
²⁰ Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
for, according to what he says, he will be protected.’

Error of the Wicked

²¹ Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray,
for their wickedness blinded them,
²² and they did not know the secret purposes of God,
nor hoped for the wages of holiness,
nor discerned the prize for blameless souls;
²³ for God created us for incorruption,
and made us in the image of his own eternity,^*
24 but through the devil’s envy death entered the world,
and those who belong to his company experience it.