8. We honour old age, but not just because a person has lived a long time.
9. Wisdom and righteousness are signs of the maturity that should come with old age.
10. Once there was a man named Enoch who pleased God, and God loved him. While Enoch was still living among sinners, God took him away,
11. so that evil and falsehood could not corrupt his mind and soul.
12. (We all know that people can be so fascinated by evil that they cannot recognize what is good even when they are looking right at it. Innocent people can be so corrupted with desire that they can think of nothing but what they want.)
13. This man Enoch achieved in a few years' time a perfection that other people could never attain in a complete lifetime.
14. The Lord was pleased with Enoch's life and quickly took him out of this wicked world. People were aware of his departure but didn't understand. They never seemed to learn the lesson
15. that God is kind and merciful to his own people; he protects those whom he has chosen.
16. Even when righteous people are dead and gone, they put to shame the wicked people who live on after them. In their old age the wicked will be disgraced by young people who have already achieved perfection.
17. The wise may die young, but the wicked will never understand that this is the Lord's way of taking them off to safety.