1 Clement
Chapter 39
- 1 Foolish, imprudent, silly, and uninstructed men mock and deride us, wishing to exalt themselves in their own conceits.
- 2 For what can mortal man do, or what is the strength of him who is a child of earth?
- 3 For it is written “There was no shape before mine eyes, but I heard a sound and a voice.
- 4 What then? Shall a mortal be pure before the Lord? Or shall a man be blameless in his deeds, seeing that he believeth not in his servants, and hath noted perversity in his angels?
- 5 Yea, the heaven is not pure before him. Away then, ye who inhabit houses of clay, of which, even of the same clay, we ourselves were made. He smote them as a moth, and from morning until evening they do not endure; they perished, without being able to help themselves.
- 6 He breathed on them and they died because they had no wisdom.
- 7 But call now, if any shall answer thee, or if thou shalt see any of the holy angels; for wrath destroyeth the foolish, and envy putteth to death him that is in error.
- 8 I have seen the foolish taking root, but t heir habitation was presently consumed.
- 9 Let their sons be far from safety; let them be mocked in the gates of those less than they, with none to deliver; for what was prepared for them the righteous shall eat, and they themselves shall not be delivered from evil.”