Wisdom 2
The wicked reason that life is short and meaningless, and that there is no afterlife, so they decide to indulge in worldly pleasures and oppress the righteous. They mock the just man, who claims to have knowledge of God and calls himself the son of God, and they plan to test his words by subjecting him to torture and a shameful death. However, the wicked are blinded by their own malice and ignorance of God's mysteries, and they fail to understand that God created man to be immortal and that death entered the world through the devil's envy.
1For they have said, reasoning with themselves incorrectly: "Our lifetime is brief and tedious, and there is no relief within the limits of man, and no one is acknowledged to have returned from the dead2For we are born from nothing, and after this we will be as if we had not been, because the breath in our nostrils is like smoke, and conversation sends out sparks from the stirring of our heart3therefore, when it is extinguished, our body will be ashes, and our spirit will be diffused like a soft breeze, and our life will pass away like the wisp of a cloud, just as a mist is dissolved when it is driven away by the rays of the sun and overpowered by its heat4And in time our name will surrender to oblivion, and no one will have remembrance of our works5For our time is like the passing of a shadow, and nothing can reverse our end, for it is signed and sealed, and cannot be returned6Therefore, hurry, let us enjoy the good things of the present time, and let us quickly use up passing things, just as in youth7Let us indulge ourselves with costly wine and ointments, and let no flower of youth pass us by8Let us surround ourselves with rosebuds before they wither; let no meadow be left untouched by our indulgence9Let no one among us be exempt from our indulgence. Let us leave behind tokens of enjoyment everywhere, for this is our portion, and this is fate10Let us oppress the poor just man, and not spare the widow, nor respect the aged grey hairs of elders11But let our strength be the law of justice, for what is weak is found to be useless12Therefore, let us encircle the just, because he is useless to us, and he is against our works, and he reproaches us with our legal offenses, and makes known to us the sins of our way of life13He promises that he has the knowledge of God and he calls himself the son of God14He was made among us to expose our very thoughts15He is grievous for us even to behold, for his life is unlike other men’s lives, and immutable are his ways16It is as if we are considered by him to be insignificant, and he abstains from our ways as from filth; he prefers the newly justified, and he glories that he has God for his father17Let us see, then, if his words are true, and let us test what will happen to him, and then we will know what his end will be18For if he is the true son of God, he will receive him and deliver him from the hands of his adversaries19Let us examine him with insult and torture, that we may know his reverence and try his patience20Let us condemn him to a most shameful death, for, according to his own words, God will care for him.21These things they thought, and they were mistaken, for their own malice blinded them22And they were ignorant of the mysteries of God; they neither hoped for the reward of justice, nor judged the value of holy souls23For God created man to be immortal, and he made him in the image of his own likeness24But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world25yet they imitate him, who are from his side
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