⁵ Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

⁵ when one is afraid of heights, and terrors are in the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along,^[a] and the caper bud falls; because all must go to their eternal home, and the mourners will go about the streets;^(A)

² that you should remember the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken through your apostles. ³ First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts^{(A) 4} and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died,^[a] all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!”^(B)

⁷ and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath^[a] returns to God who gave it.^(A)

²⁷ And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once and after that the judgment,^(A)

²³ Furthermore, the former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, ²⁴ but he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

³⁶ “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, died,^[a] was laid beside his ancestors, and experienced corruption,^(A)

⁵² The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets, yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’^(A)

Take Life as It Comes

9 All this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hate one does not know. Everything that confronts them ² is vanity,^[a] since the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,^[b] to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice. As are the good, so are the sinners; those who swear are like those who shun an oath.^{(A) 3} This is an evil in all that happens under the sun, that the same fate comes to everyone. Moreover, the hearts of humans are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.^(B)