² Why should the nations say,
    “Where is their God?”^(A)

¹⁶ We are considered by him as something base,
and he avoids our ways as unclean;
he calls the last end of the righteous happy
and boasts that God is his father.^(A)
17 Let us see if his words are true,
and let us test what will happen at the end of his life,
¹⁸ for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him
and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.^(B)
19 Let us test him with insult and torture,
so that we may find out how reasonable he is
and make trial of his forbearance.^(C)
20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
for, according to what he says, he will be protected.”

²¹ Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray,
for their wickedness blinded them,^(D)
22 and they did not know the secret purposes of God,
nor hoped for the wages of holiness,
nor discerned the prize for blameless souls,^(E)
23 for God created us for incorruption
and made us in the image of his own eternity,^[a](F)
24 but through an adversary’s^[b] envy death entered the world,
and those who belong to his company experience it.^(G)