4. “These are the people we made fun of. We thought they were a joke. What fools we were! We thought they were mad to live in the way they did, and when they died, we didn't honour them.
5. And now here they are, God's own children, with a place of their own among God's people.
6. We were the ones who wandered off the right road. We never lived in the light of righteousness; we never caught the first glimmer of its light.
7. All our lives we wandered across unmarked deserts, instead of following the road which the Lord wanted us to travel. And this lawlessness led us to ruin.
8. We were so proud of ourselves — we bragged about how rich we were — and now, what good has it done us?
9. All those things are gone now; they have disappeared like a shadow, like something you hear and then forget.
10. “A ship sails across the waves of the ocean, but when it is gone, it leaves no trace. You cannot tell it was ever there.
11. A bird flies through the air, but leaves no sign that it has been there. It speeds along, riding through the thin air by the force of its wings, leaving behind no trace of its passing.