Anonymous (Septuagint) · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| Then the righteous man will stand with great confidence before the faces of those who oppressed him and those who made light of his labors.
2| Seeing him, they will be shaken with dreadful fear, and will be amazed at the unexpectedness of his salvation.
3| Repenting, they will say among themselves, and groaning through anguish of spirit: This is the man we once held in derision and made a byword of reproach—
4| we fools! We reckoned his life madness and his death dishonorable.
5| How has he been counted among the sons of God? And how does his lot lie among the holy ones?
6| So then we wandered off the road of truth, and righteousness's light never shone on us, and the sun did not rise for us.
7| We took our fill of the paths of lawlessness and destruction, and journeyed through trackless deserts, but the way of the Lord we did not know.
8| What good did arrogance do us? And what has wealth together with boasting gained for us?
9| All those things passed away like a shadow, and like a rumor that runs past;
10| like a ship crossing the surging water, of whose passing no trace can be found, nor any path of its keel among the waves;
11| or as when a bird flies through the air, no evidence of its passage is found, but the light wind, whipped by the stroke of its wings and torn apart by the violence of its rushing, is passed through by the moving of its feathers, and afterward no sign of its passing is found in it;
12| or as an arrow, once loosed toward its target, splits the air, which at once seals itself back together, so that no one can trace its course—
13| so we too, once born, ceased to be, and had no mark of virtue to show, but were consumed away in our wickedness.
14| For what the godless hope for resembles chaff swept off by the wind, and fine frost chased away by a gale, and smoke dispersed by a breeze, and it fades like the memory of a guest who lodged for just one day.
15| But the righteous live forever, and their reward is with the Lord, and their care rests with the Most High.
16| Therefore they will receive the royal crown of splendor and the diadem of beauty from the hand of the Lord, because with his right hand he will shelter them, and with his arm he will shield them.
17| He will take his zeal as full armor, and will arm creation for vengeance against his enemies;
18| he will put on righteousness as a breastplate, and will wear impartial judgment as a helmet;
19| he will take holiness as an invincible shield,
20| and he will sharpen stern wrath into a sword, and the world will join him in battle against the madmen.
21| Well-aimed bolts of lightning will go forth, and as if from a well-bent bow of the clouds they will leap to their mark,
22| and hailstones full of wrath will be hurled as from a catapult; the water of the sea will rage against them, and rivers will sweep over them relentlessly;
23| a spirit of power will rise up against them, and will winnow them like a storm; lawlessness will lay waste the whole earth, and wrongdoing will overturn the thrones of the mighty.