im, and them that make his
labours of no account. When they see it, they shall be troubled with
terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the marvel of God's salvation.

[Footnote 4: But a righteous man that is dead shall condemn the ungodly
that are living, and youth that is quickly perfected the many years of
an unrighteous man's old age; for the ungodly shall see a wise man's
end, and shall not understand what the Lord purposed concerning him, and
for what he safely kept him.]

They shall say 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 reproach; we fools accounted his life madness and his
end without honour. How was he numbered among sons of God? and how is
his lot among saints? 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. We 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. What did our arrogancy profit us? and what good have riches and
vaunting brought us? Those things all passed away as a shadow, and as a
message that runneth by; 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; or as when a bird flieth through the
air, no token of her passage is found, but the lightwind, lashed with
the stroke of her pinions, and rent asunder with the violent rush of the
moving wings, is passed through, and afterwards no sign of her coming is
found therein; 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: so we also, as soon as we were born, ceased to be; and of
virtue we had no sign to shew, but in our wickedness we were utterly
consumed."

Because the hope of the ungodly man is as chaff carried by the wind, and
as foam vanishing before a tempest; and is scattered as smoke is
scattered by the wind; and passeth by as the remembrance of a guest that
tarrieth but a day. But the righteous live for ever, and in the Lord is
their reward, and the care for them with the Most High. 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. He shall take his jealousy