1. O how beautiful is the chaste fruit of purity! For its remembrance is immortal, because it is observed both with God and with men.
2. When it is present, they imitate it, and they desire it when it has withdrawn itself, and it triumphs crowned forever, winning the reward of undefiled conflicts.
3. But the great number of the many different kinds of the impious will not be to their advantage, and spurious seedlings will not be given deep roots, nor will they establish any firm foundation.
4. And if they spring forth with branches for a time, yet, being set infirmly, they will be shaken by the wind, and, by the superabundance of the winds, they will be eradicated.
5. For the incomplete branches will be broken, and their fruits will be useless, and bitter to eat, and fit for nothing.
6. For all the sons born from iniquity are witnesses of wickedness against their parents at their interrogation.
7. But the just, if death seizes him beforehand, will be refreshed.
8. For old age is made venerable, neither by lasting long, nor by counting the number of years; yet understanding is the gray hair of wisdom for men,
9. and an immaculate life is a generation of sages.
10. Pleasing to God, having been made beloved, and living among sinners, he was transformed.
11. He was quickly taken away, for malice could not alter his understanding, nor could deceit beguile his soul.
12. For fascination with entertainment obscures good things, and the unfaithfulness of desire subverts the mind without malice.