Wisdom 2:1-5
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 2
1 For, not thinking rightly, they said among themselves:[a]
“Brief and troubled is our lifetime;(A)
there is no remedy for our dying,
nor is anyone known to have come back from Hades.
2 For by mere chance were we born,
and hereafter we shall be as though we had not been;
Because the breath in our nostrils is smoke,
and reason a spark from the beating of our hearts,
3 And when this is quenched, our body will be ashes
and our spirit will be poured abroad like empty air.(B)
4 Even our name will be forgotten in time,
and no one will recall our deeds.
So our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud,
and will be dispersed like a mist
Pursued by the sun’s rays
and overpowered by its heat.
5 For our lifetime is the passing of a shadow;
and our dying cannot be deferred
because it is fixed with a seal; and no one returns.(C)
Footnotes
- 2:1–20 In this speech the wicked deny survival after death and indeed invite death by their evil deeds.
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