The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Solomon 02
1 For 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.
2 Because 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,
3 which being extinguished, the body will
be turned into ashes, and the spirit will
be dispersed as thin air.
4 Our 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.
5 For 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.
6 “Come therefore and let’s enjoy the good
things that exist. Let’s use the creation
earnestly as in our youth.
7 Let’s fill ourselves with
costly wine and perfumes,
and let no spring flower
pass us by.
8 Let’s crown ourselves with rosebuds before
they wither.
9 Let 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.
10 Let’s oppress the righteous poor.
Let’s not spare the widow,
nor regard the gray hair of the old
man.
11 Butlet our strengthbe a law of righteousness;
for that which is weak is proven useless.
12 Butlet’s lie in waitfor 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.
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 He is grievous to us even to look at,
because his life is unlike other men’s,
and his paths are strange.
16 We were regarded by him as something
worthless, andhe abstains fromour ways as from
uncleanness. He calls the latter end
of the righteous happy. He boasts that
God is his father.
17 Let’s see if his words are true.
Let’s test what will happen at the end
of his life.
18 For if the righteous man is God’s son, he
will uphold him, and he will deliver him
out ofthe hand of his adversaries.
19 Let’s test him with insult and torture,
that we may find out how gentle he is,
and test his patience.
20 Let’s condemn him to a shameful death,
for he will be protected, according to
his words.”
21 Thus they reasoned, and they were led
astray; for their wickedness blinded them,
22 and 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.
23 Because God created man for incorruption,
and made him an image of his own
ever last in gness;
24 but death entered into the world by the
envy of the devil, and those who belong
to him experience it.