What hope do wicked people have? Only the hope of straw blown about in the wind, the hope of ocean foam that disappears in the storm, the hope of smoke in the breeze. Their hope lasts no longer than our memory of a guest who stays one day and leaves the next.
[ὅτι ἐλπὶς ἀσεβοῦς ὡς φερόμενος χνοῦς ὑπὸ ἀνέμου
καὶ ὡς πάχνη ὑπὸ λαίλαπος διωχθεῖσα λεπτὴ
καὶ ὡς καπνὸς ὑπὸ ἀνέμου διεχύθη
καὶ ὡς μνεία καταλύτου μονοημέρου παρώδευσεν.]The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 22a. Wisdom (Wisdom of Solomon) 5:14 (Wis 5:14) [tr. GNT (1992 ed.)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Other translations:For the hope of the ungodly is like dust that is blown away with the wind; like a thin froth that is driven away with the storm; like as the smoke which is dispersed here and there with a tempest, and passeth away as the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a day.
[tr. KJV (1611)]For the hope of the wicked is as dust, which is blown away with the wind, and as a thin froth which is dispersed by the storm: and a smoke that is scattered abroad by the wind: and as the remembrance of a guest of one day that passeth by.
[tr. DRA (1899), 5:15]Yes, the hope of the godless is like chaff carried on the wind, like fine spray driven by the gale; it disperses like smoke before the wind, goes like the memory of a one-day guest.
[tr. JB (1966)]For the hope of the godless is like chaff carried on the wind, like fine spray driven by the storm; it disperses like smoke before the wind, goes away like the memory of a one-day guest.
[tr. NJB (1985)]The ungodly person’s hope disappears like dust in the wind, like frost that is stripped away and scattered by a mighty wind, like smoke that rises and is immediately dispersed by the wind, like the memory of a stranger who spends the day and then is gone.
[tr. CEB (2011)]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.
[tr. NRSV (2021 ed.)]

