3
And they, repenting and groaning in anguish of spirit, shall say within themselves: "This was he, whom we held once in derision and a proverb of reproach.
4
We fools accounted his life madness, and his end to be without honor.
5
How is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints?
6
Therefore have we erred from the way of truth; and the light of righteousness hath not shined unto us, and the sun of righteousness rose not upon us.
7
We wearied ourselves in the way of wickedness and destruction;yea, we have gone through deserts where there lay no way; but as for the way of the Lord, we have not known it.
8
What hath pride profited us? Or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us?
9
"All those things have passed away like a shadow, and as a courier that hastened by;
10
and as a ship that passeth over the waves of the water which, when it has gone by, the trace thereof cannot be found, neither the pathway of the keel in the waves;
11
or as, when a bird hath flown through the air, there is no token of her way to be found, but the light air, being beaten with the stroke of her wings and parted with the violent noise and motion of them, is passed through, and therein afterwards no sign where she went is to be found;
12
or as, when an arrow is shot at a mark, it parteth the air, which immediately cometh together again, so that a man cannot know where it went through.
13
Even so, we in like manner, as soon as we were born, began to draw to our end, and had no sign of virtue to show, but were consumed in our own wickedness."