1 Betterthan thisis childishness with virtue;
For in the memoryof virtue is immortality:
Because it is recognized both before God and before men.
2 When it is present,menimitate it;
And they long after it when it is departed:
Andthroughout all time it marcheth crowned in triumph,
Victorious in the strife for the prizes that are undefiled.
3 But the multiplying brood of the ungodly shall be of no profit,
Andwith bastardslips they shall not strike deep root,
Nor shall they establish a sure hold.
4 For even if theseput forth boughs and flourish for a season, q1Yet,standing unsure, they shall be shaken by the wind,
And by the violence of winds they shall be rooted out.
5 Theirbranches shall be broken off before they come to maturity,
and their fruitshall beuseless,
Never ripe to eat, and fit for nothing.
6 For children unlawfully begotten are witnesses of wickedness
Against parents whenGodsearcheth them out.
7 But a righteous man, though he die before his time, shall be at rest.
8 (For honorable old age is not that which stands in length of time,
Nor is its measure given by number of years:
9 But understanding is gray hairs to men,
And an unspotted life is ripe old age.)
10 Being found well-pleasing to God he was belovedof him,
And while living among sinners he was translated:
11 He was caught away, lestwickedness should change his understanding,
Or guile deceive his soul.
12 (For the bewitching of naughtiness bedimmeth the things which are good,
And the giddy whirl of desire perverteth an innocent mind.)
13 Being made perfect in a little while, he fulfilled longyears;
14 For his soul was pleasing to the Lord:
Thereforehasted he out of the midst of wickedness.
15 But as for the peoples, seeing and understanding not,
Neither layingthis to heart,
That grace and mercy are with his chosen,
And thathe visiteth his holy ones:—
16 But a righteous man that is dead shall condemn the ungodly that are living,
And youth that is quickly perfected the many years of an unrighteous man’s old age;
17 Forthe ungodlyshall see a wise man’s end,
And shall not understand what the Lord purposed concerning him,
And for what he safely kept him:—
18 They shall see, and they shall despise;
But them the Lord shall laugh to scorn.
And after this they shall become a dishonored carcase,
Anda reproach among the dead for ever:
19 Because he shall dash them speechless to the ground,
And shall shake them from the foundations,
And they shalllie utterly waste, and they shall be in anguish,
And their memory shall perish.
20 They shall come,when their sins are reckoned up, with coward fear;
And their lawless deeds shall convict them to their face.