I absolutely love this part of the Bible, because from it we get a very, very precise picture of the world OF ALL AGES (human nature never changes, nor has from the fall of Adam), as well as the black and white difference there SHOULD be between the children of the world and the just. If we do not see such a stark difference between the world and ourselves, and if the world does not treat us or say about us or do to us these things... there is more likely than not something seriously wrong with our spiritual state.
If you never have and never intend to crack the Bible's old testament books in your lifetime... at least read this part. It is, perhaps, one of the most beneficial of it's counterparts to contemplate in this present day, because it is a good compass by which we may know where we stand in terms of being in line of the spirit of the world, or the spirit of God.
This is the quote from the Douay Rheims Bible, courtesy of Project Gutenberg. (Incidentally, they also seem to have the old version of the Douay Rheims there, too, but this from the revised version of Challoner...):
"1:12. Seek not death in the error of your life, neither procure ye
destruction by the works of your hands.
1:13. For God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the
destruction of the living.
1:14. For he created all things that they might be: and he made the
nations of the earth for health: and there is no poison of destruction
in them, nor kingdom of hell upon the earth.
1:15. For justice is perpetual and immortal.
1:16. But the wicked with works and words have called it to them: and
esteeming it a friend, have fallen away and have made a covenant with
it: because they are worthy to be of the part thereof.
Wisdom Chapter 2
The vain reasonings of the wicked: their persecuting the just,
especially the Son of God.
2:1. For they have said, reasoning with themselves, but not right: The
time of our life is short and tedious, and in the end of a man there is
no remedy, and no man hath been known to have returned from hell:
2:2. For we are born of nothing, and after this we shall be as if we had
not been: for the breath in our nostrils is smoke: and speech a spark to
move our heart,
2:3. Which being put out, our body shall be ashes, and our spirit shall
be poured abroad as soft air, and our life shall pass away as the trace
of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, which is driven away by
the beams of the sun, and overpowered with the heat thereof:
2:4. And our name in time shall be forgotten, and no man shall have any
remembrance of our works.
2:5. For our time is as the passing of a shadow, and there is no going
back of our end: for it is fast sealed, and no man returneth:
2:6. Come, therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that are present,
and let us speedily use the creatures as in youth.
2:7. Let us fill ourselves with costly wine, and ointments: and let not
the flower of the time pass by us.
2:8. Let us crown ourselves with roses, before they be withered: let no
meadow escape our riot.
2:9. Let none of us go without his part in luxury: let us every where
leave tokens of joy: for this is our portion, and this our lot.
2:10. Let us oppress the poor just man, and not spare the widow, nor
honour the ancient grey hairs of the aged.
2:11. But let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is
feeble is found to be nothing worth.
2:12. Let us, therefore, lie in wait for the just, because he is not for
our turn, and he is contrary to our doings, and upbraideth us with
transgressions of the law, and divulgeth against us the sins of our way
of life.
2:13. He boasteth that he hath the knowledge of God, and calleth himself
the son of God.
2:14. He is become a censurer of our thoughts.
2:15. He is grievous unto us, even to behold: for his life is not like
other men's, and his ways are very different.
2:16. We are esteemed by him as triflers, and he abstaineth from our
ways as from filthiness, and he preferreth the latter end of the just,
and glorieth that he hath God for his father.
2:17. Let us see then if his words be true, and let us prove what shall
happen to him, and we shall know what his end shall be.
2:18. For if he be the true son of God, he will defend him, and will
deliver him from the hands of his enemies.
2:19. Let us examine him by outrages and tortures, that we may know his
meekness, and try his patience.
2:20. Let us condemn him to a most shameful death: for there shall be
respect had unto him by his words.
2:21. These things they thought, and were deceived: for their own malice
blinded them.
2:22. And they knew not the secrets of God, nor hoped for the wages of
justice, nor esteemed the honour of holy souls.
2:23. For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his own
likeness he made him.
2:24. But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world:
2:25. And they follow him that are of his side.
Wisdom Chapter 3
The happiness of the just: and the unhappiness of the wicked.
3:1. But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment
of death shall not touch them.
3:2. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure
was taken for misery:
3:3. And their going away from us, for utter destruction: but they are
in peace.
3:4. And though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope
is full of immortality.
3:5. Afflicted in few things, in many they shall be well rewarded:
because God hath tried them, and found them worthy of himself.
3:6. As gold in the furnace, he hath proved them, and as a victim of a
h0Ɩ0cαųst, he hath received them, and in time there shall be respect had
to them.
3:7. The just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among
the reeds.
3:8. They shall judge nations, and rule over people, and their Lord
shall reign for ever.
3:9. They that trust in him shall understand the truth: and they that
are faithful in love, shall rest in him: for grace and peace are to his
elect.
3:10. But the wicked shall be punished according to their own devices:
who have neglected the just, and have revolted from the Lord.
3:11. For he that rejecteth wisdom, and discipline, is unhappy: and
their hope is vain, and their labours without fruit, and their works
unprofitable.
3:12. Their wives are foolish, and their children wicked.
3:13. Their offspring is cursed, for happy is the barren: and the
undefiled, that hath not known bed in sin, she shall have fruit in the
visitation of holy souls.
3:14. And the eunuch, that hath not wrought iniquity with his hands, nor
thought wicked things against God for the precious gift of faith shall
be given to him, and a most acceptable lot in the temple of God.
3:15. For the fruit of good labours is glorious, and the root of wisdom
never faileth.
3:16. But the children of adulterers shall not come to perfection, and
the seed of the unlawful bed shall be rooted out.
3:17. And if they live long, they shall be nothing regarded, and their
last old age shall be without honour.
3:18. And if they die quickly, they shall have no hope, nor speech of
comfort in the day of trial.
3:19. For dreadful are the ends of a wicked race.
Wisdom Chapter 4
The difference between the chaste and the adulterous generations: and
between the death of the just and the wicked.
4:1. How beautiful is the chaste generation with glory: for the memory
thereof is immortal: because it is known both with God and with men.
4:2. When it is present, they imitate it: and they desire it, when it
hath withdrawn itself, and it triumpheth crowned for ever, winning the
reward of undefiled conflicts.
4:3. But the multiplied brood of the wicked shall not thrive, and
bastard slips shall not take deep root, nor any fast foundation.
4:4. And if they flourish in branches for a time, yet standing not fast,
they shall be shaken with the wind, and through the force of winds they
shall be rooted out.
4:5. For the branches not being perfect, shall be broken, and their
fruits shall be unprofitable, and sour to eat, and fit for nothing.
4:6. For the children that are born of unlawful beds, are witnesses of
wickedness against their parents in their trial.
4:7. But the just man, if he be prevented with death, shall be in rest.
4:8. For venerable old age is not that of long time, nor counted by the
number of years: but the understanding of a man is grey hairs.
4:9. And a spotless life is old age.
4:10. He pleased God, and was beloved, and living among sinners, he was
translated.
4:11. He was taken away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding,
or deceit beguile his soul.
4:12. For the bewitching of vanity obscureth good things, and the
wandering of concupiscence overturneth the innocent mind.
4:13. Being made perfect in a short space, he fulfilled a long time.
4:14. For his soul pleased God: therefore he hastened to bring him out
of the midst of iniquities: but the people see this, and understand not,
nor lay up such things in their hearts:
4:15. That the grace of God, and his mercy is with his saints, and that
he hath respect to his chosen.
4:16. But the just that is dead, condemneth the wicked that are living,
and youth soon ended, the long life of the unjust.
4:17. For they shall see the end of the wise man, and it shall not
understand what God hath designed for him, and why the Lord hath set him
in safety.
4:18. They shall see him, and shall despise him: but the Lord shall
laugh them to scorn.
4:19. And they shall fall after this without honour, and be a reproach
among the dead for ever: for he shall burst them puffed up and
speechless, and shall shake them from the foundations, and they shall be
utterly laid waste: they shall be in sorrow, and their memory shall
perish.
4:20. They shall come with fear at the thought of their sins, and their
iniquities shall stand against them to convict them.
Wisdom Chapter 5
The fruitless repentance of the wicked in another world: the reward of
the just.
5:1. Then shall the just stand with great constancy against those that
have afflicted them, and taken away their labours.
5:2. These seeing it, shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall be
amazed at the suddenness of their unexpected salvation,
5:3. Saying within themselves, repenting, and groaning for anguish of
spirit: These are they, whom we had sometime in derision, and for a
parable of reproach.
5:4. We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honour.
5:5. Behold, how they are numbered among the children of God, and their
lot is among the saints.
5:6. Therefore we have erred from the way of truth, and the light of
justice hath not shined unto us, and the sun of understanding hath not
risen upon us.
5:7. We wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and
have walked through hard ways, but the way of the Lord we have not
known.
5:8. What hath pride profited us? or what advantage hath the boasting of
riches brought us?
5:9. All those things are passed away like a shadow, and like a post
that runneth on,
5:10. And as a ship, that passeth through the waves: whereof when it is
gone by, the trace cannot be found nor the path of its keel in the
waters:
5:11. Or as when a bird flieth through the air, of the passage of which
no mark can be found, but only the sound of the wings beating the light
air, and parting it by the force of her flight: she moved her wings, and
hath flown through, and there is no mark found afterwards of her way:
5:12. Or as when an arrow is shot at a mark, the divided air quickly
cometh together again, so that the passage thereof is not known:
5:13. So we also being born, forthwith ceased to be: and have been able
to shew no mark of virtue: but are consumed in our wickedness.
5:14. Such things as these the sinners said in hell:
5:15. For the hope of the wicked is as dust, which is blown away with
the wind, and as a thin froth which is dispersed by the storm: and a
smoke that is scattered abroad by the wind: and as the remembrance of a
guest of one day that passeth by.
5:16. But the just shall live for evermore: and their reward is with the
Lord, and the care of them with the most High.
5:17. Therefore shall they receive a kingdom of glory, and a crown of
beauty at the hand of the Lord: for with his right hand he will cover
them, and with his holy arm he will defend them.
5:18. And his zeal will take armour, and he will arm the creature for
the revenge of his enemies.
5:19. He will put on justice as a breastplate, and will take true
judgment instead of a helmet:
5:20. He will take equity for an invincible shield:
5:21. And he will sharpen his severe wrath for a spear, and the whole
world shall fight with him against the unwise.
5:22. Then shafts of lightning shall go directly from the clouds, as
from a bow well bent, they shall be shot out, and shall fly to the mark.
5:23. And thick hail shall be cast upon them from the stone casting
wrath: the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the rivers
shall run together in a terrible manner.
5:24. A mighty wind shall stand up against them, and as a whirlwind
shall divide them: and their iniquity shall bring all the earth to a
desert, and wickedness shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty."
Topic: Fit in with the world? (Read 2440 times)