1. Better than this is childishness with virtue; For in the memory of virtue is immortality: Because it is recognized both before God and before men.
2. When it is present, men imitate it; And they long after it when it is departed: And throughout all time it marcheth crowned in triumph, Victorious in the strife for the prizes that are undefiled.
3. But the multiplying brood of the ungodly shall be of no profit, And with bastard slips they shall not strike deep root, Nor shall they establish a sure hold.
4. For even if these put forth boughs and flourish for a season, q1 Yet, standing unsure, they shall be shaken by the wind, And by the violence of winds they shall be rooted out.
5. Their branches shall be broken off before they come to maturity, and their fruit shall be useless, Never ripe to eat, and fit for nothing.
6. For children unlawfully begotten are witnesses of wickedness Against parents when God searcheth them out.
7. But a righteous man, though he die before his time, shall be at rest.