Wisdom 3:13-4:15

Common English Bible

¹³ What a contrast to the barren woman who has kept herself pure, who hasn’t had sex with another in sin. She will be blessed. When God inspects entire lives, she will bear fruit. ¹⁴ Even the eunuch who doesn’t break the Law with his hands and doesn’t think evil thoughts against the Lord will receive a precious gift for his fidelity and a special place in the Lord’s temple. ¹⁵ Everyone will praise the fruit of good work. Good sense is a root that never withers.

¹⁶ The children of adulterers, however, will come to nothing. The seed of people who have sex with others in violation of the Law will dry up. ¹⁷ Even if they live to old age, their lives won’t amount to anything. In their old age they will have no honor. ¹⁸ If they die young, they will have no hope or comfort on Judgment Day. ¹⁹ The family line of those who don’t do what is right will come to a bad end.

4 It’s better to be virtuous but childless. Virtue is what will be remembered, and this means immortality. Virtue is recognized by both God and humans. ² When humans find virtue in their midst, they imitate it. When virtue is gone, they long for its return. In every age, virtue wins the contest in which the prizes are unstained. It wears the victory crown, riding in triumph in the victory parade.

³ Even though the ungodly have many children, none of them will amount to anything. Those bastard saplings will never put their roots down deep or be firmly established. ⁴ They may shoot up for a time like trees with lots of new branches, but the wind will shake them with ease, and the wind’s force will uproot the whole tree. ⁵ Even before the twigs have had a chance to bud, they will be broken off. Their fruit will be useless. It will never ripen and be fit to eat. It’ll be good for absolutely nothing. ⁶ Children born of sex outside the bounds of the Law will be called as witnesses against their parents’ illicit sex when the time for judgment comes.

⁷ In contrast, those who have done what is right will be at rest, even if they die an early death. ⁸ Those who are old aren’t honorable simply because time has passed. Old age isn’t measured by counting up a person’s years. ⁹ Wisdom and a spotless life are the marks of honorable maturity. ¹⁰ There was a man who pleased God, was loved by God, and was taken away from living in the midst of sinners. ¹¹ He was snatched away so that evil didn't pervert his understanding and so that deception didn't corrupt his soul. ¹² Envying what is worthless blinds people to what is good, and the whirlwind of desire undermines an innocent mind.

¹³ Those who do what’s right are quickly perfected and live a long life in a short span of time. ¹⁴ They are whisked away from the wickedness that surrounds them because their whole beings are pleasing to the Lord. People around them see this, but they don’t understand. It doesn’t sink in ¹⁵ that favor and mercy rest upon God’s chosen ones, and that God watches over his holy ones.