1 Then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness
Before the face of them that afflicted him,
And them that make his labors of no account.
And shall be amazed at the marvel of
God's
salvation.
3 They shall say
†
Or,
among
within themselves repenting,
And for distress of spirit shall they groan,
This was he whom aforetime we had in derision,
And
made
a parable of
‡
Or,
reproach, we fools: we accounted
reproach:
4 We fools accounted his life madness,
And his end without honor:
5 How was he numbered among sons of God?
And
how
is his lot among saints?
6 Verily we went astray from the way of truth,
And the light of righteousness shined not for us,
And the sun rose not for us.
7 We
§
See Prov. xiv. 14.
took our fill of the paths of lawlessness and destruction,
And we journeyed through trackless deserts,
But the way of the Lord we knew not.
8 What did our arrogancy profit us?
And what good have riches
**
Gr.
with
and vaunting brought us?
9 Those things all passed away as a shadow,
And as a message that runs by:
10 As a ship passing through the billowy water,
Whereof, when it is gone by, there is no trace to be found,
Neither pathway of its keel in the billows:
11 Or as when a bird flieth through the air,
No token of
her
passage is found,
But the light wind, lashed with the stroke of her pinions,
And tore asunder
††
Or,
with the violent rush, is passed through by the motion of her wings
with the violent rush of the moving wings, is passed through,
And afterwards no sign of
her
coming is found therein:
12 Or as when an arrow is shot at a mark,
The air disparted closeth up again immediately,
So that men know not where it passed through:
13 So we also, as soon as we were born,
‡‡
Gr.
failed.
ceased to be;
And of virtue we had no sign to show,
But in our wickedness we were utterly consumed.
14 Because the hope of the ungodly man is as chaff carried by the wind,
And
§§
Gr.
as foam chased to thinness:
or,
as thin foam chased.
as
***
Most Greek authorities read
hoar frost:
some authorities, perhaps rightly,
a spider's web. foam vanishing before a tempest;
And is scattered as smoke
is scattered
by the wind,
And passes by as the remembrance of a guest that waits but a day.
15 But the righteous live for ever,
And in the Lord is their reward,
And the care for them with the Most High.
16 Therefore shall they receive the crown of royal dignity
And the diadem of beauty from the Lord's hand;
Because with his right hand shall he cover them,
And with his arm shall he shield them.
17 He shall take his jealousy as complete armor,
And shall make the
whole
creation his weapons
†††
Or,
to repel his enemies
for vengeance on
his
enemies:
18 He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate,
And shall array himself with judgement unfeigned as with a helmet;
19 He shall take holiness as an invincible shield,
20 And he shall sharpen stern wrath for a sword:
And the world shall go forth with him to fight against
his
insensate
foes.
21 Shafts of lightning shall fly with true aim,
And from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they leap to the mark.
22 And
as
from an engine of war shall be hurled hailstones full of wrath;
The water of the sea shall be angered against them,
And rivers shall sternly overwhelm them;
23 A mighty blast shall encounter them,
And as a tempest shall it winnow them away:
And
so
shall lawlessness make all the land desolate,
And their evil-doing shall overturn the thrones of princes.