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[1]For 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.
[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, our body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air,
[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 a mist, that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and overcome with the heat thereof.
[5]For 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 on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth.
[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 rosebuds, before they be withered:
[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.
[10]Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged.
[11]Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.
[12]Therefore 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.
[13]He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord.
[14]He was made to reprove our thoughts.
[15]He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, his ways are of another fashion.
[16]We 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.
[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 son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.
[19]Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.
[20]Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.
[21]Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.
[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.
[23]For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.
[24]Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.
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