Wisdom 3

¹But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them.

²They seemed in the eyes of the unwise to die: and their decease was counted affliction:

³and that which with us is the way, is destruction: but they are in peace.

⁴And though before men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality.

⁵Vexed in few things, in many they shall be well disposed of: because God hath tempted them, and hath found them worthy of himself.

⁶As gold in the furnace he hath proved them, and as an host of holocaust he hath received them, & in time there shall be respect of them.

⁷The just shall shine, and as sparks in a place of reeds they shall run abroad.

⁸They shall judge nations, & have dominion over peoples, and their Lord shall reign for ever.

⁹They that trust in him, shall understand truth: & the faithful in love shall rest in him: because rest and peace is to his elect.

¹⁰But the impious according to the things which they have thought, shall have correption: which have neglected the just, & have revolted from our Lord.

¹¹For he that rejecteth wisdom and discipline, is unhappy: and their hope is vain, and labours without fruit, & their works unprofitable.

¹²Their wives are senseless, and their children most wicked.

¹³Cursed is their creature: because happy is the barren woman: and the undefiled, which hath not known bed in sin, she shall have fruit in visitation of holy souls:

¹⁴and the eunuch that hath not wrought iniquity with his hands, nor thought most wicked things against God: for the chosen gift of faith shall be given to him, and a most acceptable lot in the temple of God.

¹⁵For of good labour there is glorious fruit, and the root of wisdom which falleth not.

¹⁶But the children of adulterers shall be in consummation, and the seed of the unlawful bed shall be destroyed.

¹⁷And if certes they be of long life, they shall be reputed for nothing, & their last old-age shall be without honour.

¹⁸And if they die quickly they shall have no hope, nor speech of comfort in the day of acknowledging.

¹⁹For of a wicked nation the ends are cruel.