7. 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.
8. What did our arrogancy profit us? And what good have riches and vaunting brought us?
9. Those things all passed away as a shadow, And as a message that runs by:
10. 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:
11. Or as when a bird flieth through the air, No token of her passage is found, But the light wind, lashed with the stroke of her pinions, And tore asunder with the violent rush of the moving wings, is passed through, And afterwards no sign of her coming is found therein:
12. 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:
13. So we also, as soon as we were born, ceased to be; And of virtue we had no sign to show, But in our wickedness we were utterly consumed.
14. 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 passes by as the remembrance of a guest that waits but a day.
15. But the righteous live for ever, And in the Lord is their reward, And the care for them with the Most High.
16. 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.