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2:1  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.
2:2  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;
2:3  when it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes, and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.
2:4  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.
2:5  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.
2:6  ‘Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist, and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.
2:7  Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes, and let no flower of spring pass us by.
2:8  Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.
2:9  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.
2:10  Let us oppress the righteous poor man; let us not spare the widow or regard the grey hairs of the aged.
2:11  But let our might be our law of right, for what is weak proves itself to be useless.
2:12  ‘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.
2:13  He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.
2:14  He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
2:15  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.
2:16  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.
2:17  Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;
2:18  for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.
2:19  Let us test him with insult and torture, so that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance.
2:20  Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected.’
2:21  Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them,
2:22  and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hoped for the wages of holiness, nor discerned the prize for blameless souls;
2:23  for God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity,
2:24  but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it.