Wisdom 2

How to read these pages: the text itself comes first, verse by verse, in the volume's own translation. Beneath each verse stands its Meaning — a rendering of what the passage's terms name in the inner life, drawn from the correspondences the text itself uses. The text is never altered; the meaning is offered, not imposed.

King James Version

1For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright, Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave.

For the godless states said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright: Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the shadow-state of the grave.

2For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been: for the breath in our nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart:

For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been: for the breath in our nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart:

3Which being extinguished, our body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air,

Which being extinguished, our body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air,

4And our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall have our works in remembrance, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and overcome with the heat thereof.

And our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall hold our works in remembrance, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, that is driven away with the beams of the greater light, and overcome with the heat thereof.

5For our time is a very shadow that passeth away; and after our end there is no returning: for it is fast sealed, so that no man cometh again.

For our time is a very shadow that passes away; and after our end there is no returning: for it is fast sealed, so that no man comes again.

6Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth.

Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the created things as in youth.

7Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments: and let no flower of the spring pass by us:

Let us fill ourselves with costly wine — the essence of a lesser joy taken as the whole — and ointments: and let no flower of the spring pass by us:

8Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered:

Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered:

9Let none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness: let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place: for this is our portion, and our lot is this.

Let none of us go without his part of our indulgence: let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place: for this is our portion, and our lot is this.

10Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged.

Let us oppress the poor right-ordered man, let us not spare the widow — the bereft affection left without its covering thought — nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged.

11Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.

Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.

12Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education.

Therefore let us lie in wait for the right-ordered state; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he reproves us with our offending against the law — the written order of the divine life — and charges to our infamy the transgressions of our training.

13He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord.

He professes to have the knowledge of the Source: and he calls himself the child of the indwelling LORD.

14He was made to reprove our thoughts.

He was made to reprove our thoughts.

15He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, his ways are of another fashion.

He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, his ways are of another fashion.

16We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his father.

We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he keeps himself from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounces the end of the just to be blessed — increased by divine favour — and makes his boast that the Source is his father.

17Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him.

Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him.

18For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.

For if the just man be the son of the Source, He will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.

19Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.

Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.

20Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.

Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be regarded.

21Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.

Such things they imagined, and were deceived: for their own twistedness has blinded them.

22As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls.

As for the mysteries of the Source, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of right relation, nor discerned a reward for blameless soul-states.

23For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.

For the Source created man — the Complete Man — to be immortal, and made him to be an image of His own eternity.

24Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.

Nevertheless through envy of the devil — the adversarial sense-mind, the accuser-voice within — came the death-state into the world: and they that hold of his side do find it.

Companion volume to The Why Bible — the King James Apocrypha, rendered in its spiritual meanings. First final edition, October 2026.