https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Wisdom+2&version=NRSVACE

Wisdom 2 New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition (NRSVACE)

2 For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,

‘Short and sorrowful is our life,

and there is no remedy when a life comes to its end,

and no one has been known to return from Hades.

2 For we were born by mere chance,

and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been,

for the breath in our nostrils is smoke,

and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts;

3 when it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes,

and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.

4 Our name will be forgotten in time,

and no one will remember our works;

our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud,

and be scattered like mist

that is chased by the rays of the sun

and overcome by its heat.

5 For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow,

and there is no return from our death,

because it is sealed up and no one turns back.

6 ‘Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist,

and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.

7 Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes,

and let no flower of spring pass us by.

8 Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.

9 Let none of us fail to share in our revelry;

everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment,

because this is our portion, and this our lot.

10 Let us oppress the righteous poor man;

let us not spare the widow

or regard the grey hairs of the aged.

11 But let our might be our law of right,

for what is weak proves itself to be useless.

12 ‘Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,

because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;

he reproaches us for sins against the law,

and accuses us of sins against our training.

13 He professes to have knowledge of God,

and calls himself a child[a] of the Lord.

14 He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;

15 the very sight of him is a burden to us,

because his manner of life is unlike that of others,

and his ways are strange.

16 We are considered by him as something base,

and he avoids our ways as unclean;

he calls the last end of the righteous happy,

and boasts that God is his father.

17 Let us see if his words are true,

and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;

18 for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him,

and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.

19 Let us test him with insult and torture,

so that we may find out how gentle he is,

and make trial of his forbearance.

20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death,

for, according to what he says, he will be protected.’

Error of the Wicked

21 Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray,

for their wickedness blinded them,

22 and they did not know the secret purposes of God,

nor hoped for the wages of holiness,

nor discerned the prize for blameless souls;

23 for God created us for incorruption,

and made us in the image of his own eternity,[b]

24 but through the devil’s envy death entered the world,

and those who belong to his company experience it.

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https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Wisdom+5&version=NRSVACE

Wisdom 5 New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition (NRSVACE)

5 Then the righteous will stand with great confidence

in the presence of those who have oppressed them

and those who make light of their labours.

2 When the unrighteous[a] see them, they will be shaken with dreadful fear,

and they will be amazed at the unexpected salvation of the righteous.

3 They will speak to one another in repentance,

and in anguish of spirit they will groan, and say,

4 ‘These are persons whom we once held in derision

and made a byword of reproach—fools that we were!

We thought that their lives were madness

and that their end was without honour.

5 Why have they been numbered among the children of God?

And why is their lot among the saints?

6 So it was we who strayed from the way of truth,

and the light of righteousness did not shine on us,

and the sun did not rise upon us.

7 We took our fill of the paths of lawlessness and destruction,

and we journeyed through trackless deserts,

but the way of the Lord we have not known.

8 What has our arrogance profited us?

And what good has our boasted wealth brought us?

9 ‘All those things have vanished like a shadow,

and like a rumour that passes by;

10 like a ship that sails through the billowy water,

and when it has passed no trace can be found,

no track of its keel in the waves;

11 or as, when a bird flies through the air,

no evidence of its passage is found;

the light air, lashed by the beat of its pinions

and pierced by the force of its rushing flight,

is traversed by the movement of its wings,

and afterwards no sign of its coming is found there;

12 or as, when an arrow is shot at a target,

the air, thus divided, comes together at once,

so that no one knows its pathway.

13 So we also, as soon as we were born, ceased to be,

and we had no sign of virtue to show,

but were consumed in our wickedness.’

14 Because the hope of the ungodly is like thistledown[b] carried by the wind,

and like a light frost[c] driven away by a storm;

it is dispersed like smoke before the wind,

and it passes like the remembrance of a guest who stays but a day.

The Reward of the Righteous

15 But the righteous live for ever,

and their reward is with the Lord;

the Most High takes care of them.

16 Therefore they will receive a glorious crown

and a beautiful diadem from the hand of the Lord,

because with his right hand he will cover them,

and with his arm he will shield them.

17 The Lord[d] will take his zeal as his whole armour,

and will arm all creation to repel[e] his enemies;

18 he will put on righteousness as a breastplate,

and wear impartial justice as a helmet;

19 he will take holiness as an invincible shield,

20 and sharpen stern wrath for a sword,

and creation will join with him to fight against his frenzied foes.

21 Shafts of lightning will fly with true aim,

and will leap from the clouds to the target, as from a well-drawn bow,

22 and hailstones full of wrath will be hurled as from a catapult;

the water of the sea will rage against them,

and rivers will relentlessly overwhelm them;

23 a mighty wind will rise against them,

and like a tempest it will winnow them away.

Lawlessness will lay waste the whole earth,

and evildoing will overturn the thrones of rulers.

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