Chapter 3

But the souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment of death will touch them.

In the eyes of the foolish, they seemed to die, and their departure was considered an affliction,

and their going away from us, a banishment. Yet they are in peace.

And though, in the sight of men, they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality.

Troubled in few things, in many things they will be well compensated, because God has tested them and found them worthy of himself.

Like gold in the furnace, he has proved them, and as a holocaust victim, he has received them, and in the time of their visitation

they will shine, and they will dash about like sparks among stubble.

They will judge the nations and they will rule over the people, and their Lord will reign forever.

Those who trust in him, will understand the truth, and those who are faithful in love will rest in him, because grace and peace is for his elect.

But the impious will be chastised according to their thoughts, for they have neglected the just and have retreated from the Lord.

For whoever abandons wisdom and instruction is unhappy, and their hope is empty, and their labors without fruit, and their works useless.

Their wives are foolish and their sons are wicked; the things that serve them are accursed.

Therefore, fertile is the barren and undefiled, who has not known transgressions in bed; she will bear fruit by caring for holy souls.

And fertile is the celibate, who has not wrought iniquity with his hands, nor thought wickedness against God; for to him will be given a special gift of faith and a very welcome place in the temple of the Lord.

For the fruit of good labors is glorious and the root of wisdom shall never perish.

But the sons of adulterers will not reach completion, and the offspring of a sinful bed will be banished.

And if they live long, they will be counted as nothing, and their last years of old-age will be without honor.

And if they die quickly, they will have no hope, nor words of comfort on the day of reckoning.

For the iniquities of the people have a dreadful result.