3
They will speak to one another in repentance, and in anguish of spirit they will groan, and say,
4
"These are persons whom we once held in derision and made a byword of reproach—fools that we were! We thought that their lives were madness and that their end was without honor.
5
Why have they been numbered among the children of God? And why is their lot among the saints?
6
So it was we who strayed from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness did not shine on us, and the sun did not rise upon us.
7
We took our fill of the paths of lawlessness and destruction, and we journeyed through trackless deserts, but the way of the Lord we have not known.
8
What has our arrogance profited us? And what good has our boasted wealth brought us?
9
"All those things have vanished like a shadow, and like a rumor that passes by;
10
like a ship that sails through the billowy water, and when it has passed no trace can be found, no track of its keel in the waves;
11
or as, when a bird flies through the air, no evidence of its passage is found; the light air, lashed by the beat of its pinions and pierced by the force of its rushing flight, is traversed by the movement of its wings, and afterward no sign of its coming is found there;
12
or as, when an arrow is shot at a target, the air, thus divided, comes together at once, so that no one knows its pathway.
13
So we also, as soon as we were born, ceased to be, and we had no sign of virtue to show, but were consumed in our wickedness."