The Wisdom of Solomon
Wisdom of Solomon 2
Chapter II · Vol. III, p. 1549
1 The wicked think this life short, and of no other after this. 6 Therefore they will take their pleasure in this, and conspire against the just. 21 What that is which doth blind them.
1 For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright, 1Our life is short and tedious, 2and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave.
2 For 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:
3 Which being extinguished, 3our body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the 4soft air,
3 Eccl. 3. 20.
4 Or, moist.
4 And 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 the mist that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and 5overcome with the heat thereof.
5 Or, oppressed.
5 6For our time is a very shadow that passeth away; and after our end there is no returning: for 7it is fast sealed, so that no man cometh again.
7 Or, he.
6 Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things 8that are present: and let us 9speedily use the creatures like as in youth.
8 Isa. 22. 13. & 56. 12. 1 Cor. 15. 32.
9 Or, earnestly.
7 Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments: and let no flower of the spring pass by us.
8 Let us crown ourselves with rose-buds, *before they be withered.
* Isa. 40. 7.
9 Let 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.
† Or, jollity.
‡ Ps. 17. 14.
10 ||Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged.
|| Isa. 1. 17.
11 Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.
12 Therefore 1let 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 transgressions of our education.
1 Ps. 10. 9.
13 2He professeth to have the knowledge of God, and he calleth himself the child of the Lord.
2 ch. 14. 22.
14 He was made to 3reprove our thoughts.
3 John 7. 7. Eph. 5. 13.
15 4He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, his ways are of another fashion.
4 Isa. 53. 3.
16 We are esteemed of him as 5counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth 6the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his father.
5 Or, false coin.
6 Ps. 37. 37.
17 Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him.
18 For if the just man be the 7son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.
19 Let us 8examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.
8 Jer. 11. 19.
20 Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.
21 Such things they did imagine, 9and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.
9 Ps. 50. 21.
22 As for the mysteries of God, *they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor †discerned a reward for blameless souls.
† Gr. preferred, or, esteemed the reward.
23 For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an ‡image of his own eternity.
‡ Gen. 1. 26, 27. & 5. 1. Ecclus. 17. 3.
24 ||Nevertheless, through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.
|| Gen. 3. 13.