Catholic Public Domain Version

Wisdom 4:1-6 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

1. O how beautiful is the chaste fruit of purity! For its remembrance is immortal, because it is observed both with God and with men.

2. When it is present, they imitate it, and they desire it when it has withdrawn itself, and it triumphs crowned forever, winning the reward of undefiled conflicts.

3. But the great number of the many different kinds of the impious will not be to their advantage, and spurious seedlings will not be given deep roots, nor will they establish any firm foundation.

4. And if they spring forth with branches for a time, yet, being set infirmly, they will be shaken by the wind, and, by the superabundance of the winds, they will be eradicated.

5. For the incomplete branches will be broken, and their fruits will be useless, and bitter to eat, and fit for nothing.

6. For all the sons born from iniquity are witnesses of wickedness against their parents at their interrogation.