---
title: "Wisdom 2 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/2/
description: "The vain reasonings of the wicked: their persecuting the just, especially the Son… Wisdom 2 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Wisdom 2

Wisdom 2 is chapter 2 of 19 in the Book of Wisdom. Here are all 25 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The vain reasonings of the wicked: their persecuting the just, especially the Son of God.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Wisdom 2 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. For they have said, reasoning with themselves incorrectly: “Our lifetime is brief and tedious, and there is no relief within the limits of man, and no one is acknowledged to have returned from the dead.
2. For we are born from nothing, and after this we will be as if we had not been, because the breath in our nostrils is like smoke, and conversation sends out sparks from the stirring of our heart;
3. therefore, when it is extinguished, our body will be ashes, and our spirit will be diffused like a soft breeze, and our life will pass away like the wisp of a cloud, just as a mist is dissolved when it is driven away by the rays of the sun and overpowered by its heat.
4. And in time our name will surrender to oblivion, and no one will have remembrance of our works.
5. For our time is like the passing of a shadow, and nothing can reverse our end, for it is signed and sealed, and cannot be returned.
6. Therefore, hurry, let us enjoy the good things of the present time, and let us quickly use up passing things, just as in youth.
7. Let us indulge ourselves with costly wine and ointments, and let no flower of youth pass us by.
8. Let us surround ourselves with rosebuds before they wither; let no meadow be left untouched by our indulgence.
9. Let no one among us be exempt from our indulgence. Let us leave behind tokens of enjoyment everywhere, for this is our portion, and this is fate.
10. Let us oppress the poor just man, and not spare the widow, nor respect the aged grey hairs of elders.
11. But let our strength be the law of justice, for what is weak is found to be useless.
12. Therefore, let us encircle the just, because he is useless to us, and he is against our works, and he reproaches us with our legal offenses, and makes known to us the sins of our way of life.
13. He promises that he has the knowledge of God and he calls himself the son of God.
14. He was made among us to expose our very thoughts.
15. He is grievous for us even to behold, for his life is unlike other men’s lives, and immutable are his ways.
16. It is as if we are considered by him to be insignificant, and he abstains from our ways as from filth; he prefers the newly justified, and he glories that he has God for his father.
17. Let us see, then, if his words are true, and let us test what will happen to him, and then we will know what his end will be.
18. For if he is the true son of God, he will receive him and deliver him from the hands of his adversaries.
19. Let us examine him with insult and torture, that we may know his reverence and try his patience.
20. Let us condemn him to a most shameful death, for, according to his own words, God will care for him.”
21. These things they thought, and they were mistaken, for their own malice blinded them.
22. And they were ignorant of the mysteries of God; they neither hoped for the reward of justice, nor judged the value of holy souls.
23. For God created man to be immortal, and he made him in the image of his own likeness.
24. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world,
25. yet they imitate him, who are from his side.

## Wisdom 2 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Dixerunt enim cogitantes apud se non recte: Exiguum et cum tædio est tempus vitæ nostræ, et non est refrigerium in fine hominis, et non est qui agnitus sit reversus ab inferis.
2. Quia ex nihilo nati sumus, et post hoc erimus tamquam non fuerimus. Quoniam fumus flatus est in naribus nostris, et sermo scintilla ad commovendum cor nostrum:
3. qua extincta, cinis erit corpus nostrum, et spiritus diffundetur tamquam mollis aër; et transibit vita nostra tamquam vestigium nubis, et sicut nebula dissolvetur quæ fugata est a radiis solis, et a calore illius aggravata.
4. Et nomen nostrum oblivionem accipiet per tempus, et nemo memoriam habebit operum nostrorum.
5. Umbræ enim transitus est tempus nostrum, et non est reversio finis nostri: quoniam consignata est, et nemo revertitur.
6. Venite ergo, et fruamur bonis quæ sunt, et utamur creatura tamquam in juventute celeriter.
7. Vino pretioso et unguentis nos impleamus, et non prætereat nos flos temporis.
8. Coronemus nos rosis antequam marcescant; nullum pratum sit quod non pertranseat luxuria nostra:
9. nemo nostrum exsors sit luxuriæ nostræ. Ubique relinquamus signa lætitiæ, quoniam hæc est pars nostra, et hæc est sors.
10. Opprimamus pauperem justum, et non parcamus viduæ, nec veterani revereamur canos multi temporis:
11. sit autem fortitudo nostra lex justitiæ; quod enim infirmum est, inutile invenitur.
12. Circumveniamus ergo justum, quoniam inutilis est nobis, et contrarius est operibus nostris, et improperat nobis peccata legis, et diffamat in nos peccata disciplinæ nostræ.
13. Promittit se scientiam Dei habere, et filium Dei se nominat.
14. Factus est nobis in traductionem cogitationum nostrarum.
15. Gravis est nobis etiam ad videndum, quoniam dissimilis est aliis vita illius, et immutatæ sunt viæ ejus.
16. Tamquam nugaces æstimati sumus ab illo, et abstinet se a viis nostris tamquam ab immunditiis, et præfert novissima justorum, et gloriatur patrem se habere Deum.
17. Videamus ergo si sermones illius veri sint, et tentemus quæ ventura sunt illi, et sciemus quæ erunt novissima illius.
18. Si enim est verus filius Dei, suscipiet illum, et liberabit eum de manibus contrariorum.
19. Contumelia et tormento interrogemus eum, ut sciamus reverentiam ejus, et probemus patientiam illius.
20. Morte turpissima condemnemus eum; erit enim ei respectus ex sermonibus illius.
21. Hæc cogitaverunt, et erraverunt: excæcavit enim illos malitia eorum.
22. Et nescierunt sacramenta Dei: neque mercedem speraverunt justitiæ, nec judicaverunt honorem animarum sanctarum.
23. Quoniam Deus creavit hominem inexterminabilem, et ad imaginem similitudinis suæ fecit illum.
24. Invidia autem diaboli mors introivit in orbem terrarum:
25. imitantur autem illum qui sunt ex parte illius.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- cf. CCC ¶ 1008: Dying in Christ Jesus ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2538: The Disorder of Covetous Desires ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Read at Mass (US)

- Fri, Mar 12, 2027: Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent — First Reading, Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22
- Sun, Jun 27, 2027 (computed): Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
- Sun, Sep 19, 2027 (computed): Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Wisdom 2:12, 17-20
- Fri, Mar 31, 2028 (computed): Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent — First Reading, Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22

Citations as published in the USCCB liturgical calendar (principal Mass, first option). Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).