2 Because they said[fn] within themselves, with unsound reasoning,

“Our life is short and sorrowful.

There’s no healing when a man comes to his end,

and no one was ever known who[fn] was released from Haidais.

2 Because we were born by mere chance,

and in the future we’ll be as though we’d never been,

because the breath in our nostrils is smoke,

and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our heart,

3 which being extinguished, the body will be turned into ashes,

and the spirit will be dispersed as thin air.

4 Our name will be forgotten in time.

No one will remember our works.

Our life will pass away as the traces of a cloud,

and will be scattered as is a mist,

when it’s chased by the rays of the sun,

and[fn] overcome by its heat.

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

and our end doesn’t retreat,

because it’s securely sealed, and no one[fn] turns it back.

6 “Come therefore and let’s enjoy the good things that exist.

Let’s use the creation earnestly as in our youth.

7 Let’s fill ourselves with costly wine and perfumes,

and let no spring flower pass us by.

8 Let’s crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.

9 Let none of us go without his share in our proud revelry.

Let’s leave tokens of mirth everywhere,

because this is our portion, and this is our lot.

10 Let’s oppress the righteous poor.

Let’s not spare the widow,

nor regard the grey hair of the old man.

11 But let our strength be a law of righteousness;

for that which is weak is proven useless.

12 But let’s lie in wait for the righteous man,

because he annoys us,

is contrary to our works,

reproaches us with sins against the law,

and charges us with sins against our training.

13 He professes to have knowledge of God,

and calls himself a child of the master.

14 He became to us a reproof of our thoughts.

15 He’s grievous to us even to look at,

because his life is unlike other men’s,

and his paths are strange.

16 We were regarded by him as something worthless,

and he abstains from our ways as from uncleanness.

He calls the latter end of the righteous happy.

He boasts that God is his father.

17 Let’s see if his words are true.

Let’s test what’ll happen at the end of his life.

18 Because if the righteous man is God’s son, he’ll uphold him,

and he’ll deliver him out of the hand of his adversaries.

19 Let’s test him with insult and torture,

that we may find out how gentle he is,

and test his patience.

20 Let’s condemn him to a shameful death,

for he’ll be protected, according to his words.”