Ben Sira 41:1-9

1 O death, how bitter is the reminder of you to one who lives at peace among his possessions, to a man without distractions, who is prosperous in everything, and who still has the vigor to enjoy his food!
2 O death, how welcome is your sentence to one who is in need and is failing in strength, very old and distracted over everything; to one who is contrary, and has lost his patience!
3 Do not fear the sentence of death; remember your former days and the end of life; this is the decree from the Lord for all flesh,
4 and how can you reject the good pleasure of the Most High? Whether life is for ten or a hundred or a thousand years, there is no inquiry about it in Hades.
5 The children of sinners are abominable children, and they frequent the haunts of the ungodly.
6 The inheritance of the children of sinners will perish, and on their posterity will be a perpetual reproach.
7 Children will blame an ungodly father, for they suffer reproach because of him.
8 Woe to you, ungodly men, who have forsaken the law of the Most High God!
9 When you are born, you are born to a curse; and when you die, a curse is your lot.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.