40
and Hezekiah for the people in the time of Sennacherib, and many for many.
41
Even so now, seeing corruption has grown up and wickedness increased, and the righteous have prayed for the ungodly, why shall it not be so now also?"
42
He answered me and said, "This present life is not the end, where much glory doth abide; therefore have they prayed for the weak.
43
But the Day of Doom shall be the end of this time and the beginning of the immortality to come, wherein corruption is past,
44
intemperance is at an end, infidelity is cut off, righteousness has grown, and truth has sprung up.
45
Then shall no man be able to save him that is destroyed, nor to oppress him that hath gotten the victory."
46
I answered then and said, "This is my first and last saying: that it would have been better not to have given the earth unto Adam, or else, when it was given him, to have restrained him from sinning.
47
For what profit is it for men now in this present time to live in heaviness and after death to look for punishment?
48
O thou Adam, what hast thou done? For though it was thou that sinned, thou art not fallen alone, but we all who come from thee.
49
what profit is it unto us if there be promised us an immortal time, whereas we have done the works that bring death?
50
And that there is promised us an everlasting hope, whereas ourselves, being most wicked, are made vain?