| 1 | But the souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment of death will touch them. |
| 2 | In the eyes of the foolish, they seemed to die, and their departure was considered an affliction, |
| 3 | and their going away from us, a banishment. Yet they are in peace. |
| 4 | And though, in the sight of men, they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality. |
| 5 | Troubled in few things, in many things they will be well compensated, because God has tested them and found them worthy of himself. |
| 6 | Like gold in the furnace, he has proved them, and as a holocaust victim, he has received them, and in the time of their visitation |
| 7 | they will shine, and they will dash about like sparks among stubble. |
| 8 | They will judge the nations and they will rule over the people, and their Lord will reign forever. |
| 9 | Those who trust in him, will understand the truth, and those who are faithful in love will rest in him, because grace and peace is for his elect. |
| 10 | But the impious will be chastised according to their thoughts, for they have neglected the just and have retreated from the Lord. |
| 11 | For whoever abandons wisdom and instruction is unhappy, and their hope is empty, and their labors without fruit, and their works useless. |
| 12 | Their wives are foolish and their sons are wicked; the things that serve them are accursed. |
| 13 | Therefore, fertile is the barren and undefiled, who has not known transgressions in bed; she will bear fruit by caring for holy souls. |
| 14 | And fertile is the celibate, who has not wrought iniquity with his hands, nor thought wickedness against God; for to him will be given a special gift of faith and a very welcome place in the temple of the Lord. |
| 15 | For the fruit of good labors is glorious and the root of wisdom shall never perish. |
| 16 | But the sons of adulterers will not reach completion, and the offspring of a sinful bed will be banished. |
| 17 | And if they live long, they will be counted as nothing, and their last years of old-age will be without honor. |
| 18 | And if they die quickly, they will have no hope, nor words of comfort on the day of reckoning. |
| 19 | For the iniquities of the people have a dreadful result. |
