II
For they said, reasoning in their hearts without understanding,
That our lives are short, full of sorrow,
And there is no ease in the death of man,
And no knowing in the heart of one who journeys to Hell.
For we have existed only in emptiness;
Beyond this life we will be as those who are no more,
For the breath of our lungs is mist,
And the word which moves in our hearts an ember.
For when it withers, the body in its whole will fade like ash,
And the spirit will escape from the body in the manner of air.
There will be no memory of our names, in our times,
No person will give thought to our works,
And our lives will pass on in the way of clouds,
They will dissolve in the way of a breath scattered by the rays of the sun.
Our time is a shadow which passes us always,
And there is no return in our deaths;
For a seal will be set on all souls, and none shall lift that seal.
So go and fill yourself with that which is good;
Use up creation in the hurried way of the young.
Let us sate ourselves with pleasant wine and incense,
And let the fruits of spring not pass us by.
Let us crown ourselves with rosy wreathes not yet withered,
So that none will exceed us in our sinfulness;
Let us leave a symbol of our joy in each place,
For this is our part, and our inheritance.
The lot of the just let us take in violence;
Let us spare no thought to the widow,
Nor let us suffer the shame of graying hair in the greatness of our age.
Let our power become for us the law of righteousness;
For weakness will be judged, and made of no use.
Let us lie in wait for the righteous one,
For he strives to do good service for us,
And he struggles against our works.
He mocks us in our sin against the law,
And he is revealed in our sin through his teaching.
He says that he knows God,
And he brings himself forth as a child of the Lord.
He becomes for us a reproach in our thoughts,
Our eyes cannot bear to look upon him,
For in his life there is no other equal, no likeness,
And his ways are full of change.
We are regarded by him as among the debased,
And he departs from our ways as if they are unclean.
He blesses the ways of the righteous,
And he dares to say that his father is God.
Let us see that his words are true,
And let us tempt him in his way.
If the righteous one is the Son of God,
He will accept him, and He will save him from those who strive against him.
Let us test him with torment and anguish,
For he will understand in his awareness,
And we will try him in his long-suffering heart.
Let us condemn him in a scornful death;
For they will find his worth according to his words.
It is these things they think, and these things that lead them astray;
It is their darkness that has closed their hearts.
And they have not understood the mysteries of God,
Nor have they set their minds on the reward of righteousness;
They have not believed in the honor of those souls which are sacred.
For God created man in immortality,
And he created him in the image of his likeness.
In the envy of the adversary death entered into the world;
It is his own kind who come to know him.
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