1. Then the one who did do what was right will stand up with full confidence in the very midst of those who caused his suffering and made light of his distress.
2. They will tremble with great fear when they see him. They will be amazed that he was delivered so unexpectedly.
3. They will sing a different tune as they gasp and say to themselves:
4. He’s the one we mocked?! He’s the one we insulted? What idiots we were! We thought his life was madness and his death a disgrace.
5. How is it that he’s now counted among God’s children? How is it that he’s now considered one of the saints?
6. Clearly we were the ones who missed the way to truth. The light that would have shown us the right thing to do hasn’t shone for us. That sun didn’t rise upon us.
7. We got entangled in lawlessness and destruction. We wandered through desolate wildernesses. We didn’t know the Lord’s way.
8. What good did our pride do us? What good were our wealth and pretension?
9. These things have all passed away like a shadow. They’re gone like old news.
10. They’re gone like a ship passing through a storm-tossed sea: once it has passed, it leaves no trace of its passing; its keel leaves no lasting mark on the waves.
11. That’s all disappeared in the way a bird flies through the air and leaves no hint of its path: it beats its wings against the thin air, dives with a rush, uses its wings to circle round—yet afterward there’s no sign in the air that the bird was ever there.