1 But the souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment of death will touch them.
2 In the eyes of the foolish, they seemed to die, and their departure was considered an affliction,
3 and their going away from us, a banishment. Yet they are in peace.
4 And though, in the sight of men, they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality.
5 Troubled in few things, in many things they will be well compensated, because God has tested them and found them worthy of himself.
6 Like gold in the furnace, he has proved them, and as a holocaust victim, he has received them, and in the time of their visitation
7 they will shine, and they will dash about like sparks among stubble.