1 And now, O Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, the soul in anguish, and the troubled spirit crieth to thee:
2 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy, for thou art a merciful God, and have pity on us: for we have sinned before thee.
3 For thou remainest for ever, and shall we perish everlastingly?
4 O Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, hear now the prayer of the dead of Israel, and of their children, that have sinned before thee, and have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, wherefore evils have cleaved fast to us.
5 Remember not the iniquities of our fathers, but think upon thy hand, and upon thy name at this time:
6 For thou art the Lord our God, and we will praise thee, O Lord:
7 Because for this end thou hast put thy fear in our hearts, to the intent that we should call upon thy name, and praise thee in our captivity, for we are converted from the iniquity of our fathers, who sinned before thee.
8 And behold we are at this day in our captivity, whereby thou hast scattered us to be a reproach, and a curse, and an offence, according to all the iniquities of our fathers, who departed from thee, O Lord our God.
9 Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life: give ear, that thou mayst learn wisdom.
10 How happeneth it, O Israel, that thou art in thy enemies' land?
11 Thou art grown old in a strange country, thou art defiled with the dead: thou art counted with them that go down into hell.
12 Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom :
13 For if thou hadst walked in the way of God, thou hadst surely dwelt in peace for ever.
14 Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is understanding: that thou mayst know also where is length of days and life, where is the light of the eyes, and peace.
15 Who hath found out her place? and who hath gone in to her treasures?
16 Where are the princes of the nations, and they that rule over the beasts that are upon the earth?
17 That take their diversion with the birds of the air.
18 That hoard up silver and gold, wherein men trust, and there is no end of their getting? who work in silver and are solicitous, and their works are unsearchable.
19 They are cut off, and are gone down to hell, and others are risen up in their place.
20 Young men have seen the light, and dwelt upon the earth: but the way of knowledge they have not known,
21 Nor have they understood the paths thereof, neither have their children received it, it is far from their face.
22 It hath not been heard of in the land of Chanaan, neither hath it been seen in Theman.
23 The children of Agar also, that search after the wisdom that is of the earth, the merchants of Merrha, and of Theman, and the tellers of fables, and searchers of prudence and understanding: but the way of wisdom they have not known, neither have they remembered her paths.
24 O Israel, how great is the house of God, and how vast is the place of his possession!
25 It is great, and hath no end: it is high and immense.
26 There were the giants, those renowned men that were from the beginning, of great stature, expert in war.
27 The Lord chose not them, neither did they find the way of knowledge: therefore did they perish.
28 And because they had not wisdom, they perished through their folly.
29 Who hath gone up into heaven, and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds?
30 Who hath passed over the sea, and found her, and brought her preferably to chosen gold?
31 There is none that is able to know her ways, nor that can search out her paths :
32 But he that knoweth all things, knoweth her, and hath found her out with his understanding: he that prepared the earth for evermore, and filled it with cattle and fourfooted beasts:
33 He that sendeth forth light, and it goeth: and hath called it, and it obeyeth him with trembling.
34 And the stars have given light in their watches, and rejoiced:
35 They were called, and they said: Here we are: and with cheerfuIness they have shined forth to him that made them.
36 This is our God, and there shall no other be accounted of in comparison of him.
37 He found out all the way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved.
38 Afterwards he was seen upon earth, and conversed with men.
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.