Wisdom of Solomon, 3

1. The souls of the just are in the hands of God and no torment shall touch them.

2. In the eyes of the unwise they appear to be dead. Their going is held as a disaster;

3. it seems that they lose everything by departing from us, but they are in peace.

4. Though seemingly they have been punished, immortality was the soul of their hope.

5. After slight affliction will come great blessings, for God has tried them and found them worthy to be with him;

6. after testing them as gold in the furnace, he has accepted them as a holocaust.

7. At the time of his coming they will shine like sparks that run in the stubble.

8. They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will be their king forever.

9. Those who trust in him will penetrate the truth, those who are faithful will live with him in love, for his grace and mercy are for his chosen ones.

10. But the godless who have ignored the upright and deserted the Lord, will meet the punishment their evil thoughts deserve.

11. Unhappy are those who put no value on wisdom and instruction, their hope is vain, their efforts useless, their work without profit;

12. their wives are foolish, their children evil, their posterity cursed.

13. Happy the childless wife if she is blameless and has not been guilty of adultery; she will be found fruitful on the day of judgment.

14. And happy the impotent man who has done no evil or harbored resentful thoughts against the Lord. His fidelity will be richly rewarded with a special place in the Lord's heavenly sanctuary.

15. The toil of the righteous bears choice fruit; and wise discernment is a tree that does not wither.

16. But the children born of adultery die young and the offspring of an unlawful union disappear.

17. If they live long, they count for nothing and are finally despised in their old age.

18. If they die young, it is without hope, and they cannot comfort themselves with thinking of the Judgment.

19. Cruel is the fate of an evil race.