The Wicked Say Life Is for Pleasure

¹The wicked have reached this irrational conclusion:

“Our life is short and sad.

There is no remedy for death;

no one has returned from the grave.

²We are born by chance,

and when we die, it is as though we never existed.

The breath in our nostrils is but a puff of smoke,

and our reason is merely a spark kept alive by our beating hearts.

³When that spark is extinguished, it will leave the body in ashes;

our spirit will dissipate like a vapor.

⁴In time even our name will be forgotten,

and no one will remember anything we have done.

Our life will pass away

like the last wisp of a cloud;

it will dissipate like mist

that is driven away by sunlight

and overcome by its heat.

⁵For our days are but the passing of a shadow,

and there is no return from death.

Our fate is sealed,

and no one can come back.

⁶“Come, then, let’s enjoy the good things around us

and take pleasure in creation with youthful zeal.

⁷Let’s take our fill of costly wines and perfumes;

let’s take time to enjoy the spring flowers.

⁸Let’s crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wilt;

⁹let’s stop in every meadow for joyous play.[#2:9 As in Latin Vulgate; Greek reads let none of us fail to share in our revelry.]

Let’s leave signs of our enjoyment everywhere,

for this life is what we have inherited.

¹⁰“Let’s oppress the righteous poor man

and not spare the widow.

Let’s dishonor the aged, whose hair is gray.

¹¹Let’s consider our might to be right,

for the weak prove to be useless.

¹²Let’s lie in wait for righteous people,

for they are an embarrassment to us.

They oppose our actions;

they reproach us for breaking the law of Moses

and rebelling against our upbringing.

¹³They claim to know God

and call themselves servants of God.

¹⁴They tell us our thoughts are sinful;

the very sight of these people bothers us.

¹⁵They are not like other people;

their ways are very different.

¹⁶They regard us as insignificant

and avoid our ways, calling them unclean.

They say that the final destiny of the righteous is blessed,

and they boast that God is their Father.

¹⁷Let’s see then if their words are true;

let’s watch what happens to them in the end.

¹⁸If the righteous are the children of God,

God will defend them

and rescue them from their enemies’ control.

¹⁹Let’s insult and torture them;

then we will find out how meek and patient they are.

²⁰Let’s condemn them to a most shameful death,

for they say God will protect them.”

²¹They reasoned this way, but they were deceived,

for their own evil blinded them.

²²They did not know the secret plan of God.

They never expected that a holy life would have its rewards.

²³For God created people to be immortal;

he made us in his own eternal image.

²⁴But because of the envy of the Devil,

death came into the world,

and all who belong to him experience it.