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
These people please God, are loved by God, and are taken away from living in the midst of sinners.
11
They are snatched away so that evil doesn't pervert their understanding and so that deception doesn't corrupt their souls.
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.