Why do the wicked want to silence the just man?

The chapter reports the wicked speaking among themselves. It says at once that their reasoning is wrong. They describe life as short and hard, followed by nothing. They compare breath to smoke, life to a cloud, and time to a passing shadow. They think their names and deeds will be forgotten. These are their claims, not the chapter’s own teaching.

From that view they urge one another to enjoy wine, perfumes, roses, and every chance for luxury before life ends. Their plans also include cruelty. They want to oppress the poor just man, the widow, and the old. They make their own strength the measure of justice and treat weakness as worthless.

The just man disturbs them because he challenges their way of life and accuses them of breaking the law. They say he knows God, calls himself God’s son, avoids their ways, and claims God as his father. Even the sight of his different life troubles them. They plan to put his words to the test: if he is truly God’s son, they say, God will protect him. They propose insults and torture to test his patience, then a shameful death. The chapter reports this plan; it does not narrate its completion.

The author says that their malice has blinded them. They do not know God’s secrets, hope for the reward of justice, or value holy souls. God created the human person incorruptible and in his own likeness. Death entered the world through the devil’s envy, and those on his side follow him. The edition’s heading reads the persecution as directed especially toward the Son of God. This is the heading’s Christian reading of the passage.