Evening Prayer

A Reading from the Wisdom of Solomon.

1 Then the righteous will stand with great confidence in the presence of those who have oppressed them and those who make light of their labours. 2 When the unrighteous see them, they will be shaken with dreadful fear, and they will be amazed at the unexpected salvation of the righteous. 3 They will speak to one another in repentance, and in anguish of spirit they will groan, and say, 4 ‘These are persons whom we once held in derision and made a byword of reproach—fools that we were! We thought that their lives were madness and that their end was without honour. 5 Why have they been numbered among the children of God? And why is their lot among the saints? 14 Because the hope of the ungodly is like thistledown carried by the wind, and like a light frost driven away by a storm; it is dispersed like smoke before the wind, and it passes like the remembrance of a guest who stays but a day. 15 But the righteous live for ever, and their reward is with the Lord; the Most High takes care of them. 16 Therefore they will receive a glorious crown and a beautiful diadem from the hand of the Lord, because with his right hand he will cover them, and with his arm he will shield them.