“As for your ancestors, where are they? And did the prophets live forever?

“Why do the wicked go on living, grow old, even increase in power?

When the Egyptians see you they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will keep you alive.

O sovereign master, your decrees can give men life; may years of life be restored to me. Restore my health and preserve my life.’

I also gave them decrees which were not good and regulations by which they could not live.

People will reside again in his shade; they will plant and harvest grain in abundance. They will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.

The leaders then added, “Let them live.” So they became woodcutters and water carriers for the whole community, as the leaders had decided.

The dead do not come back to life, the spirits of the dead do not rise. That is because you came in judgment and destroyed them, you wiped out all memory of them.

Your dead will come back to life; your corpses will rise up. Wake up and shout joyfully, you who live in the ground! For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits.