Precious in the eyes of Jehovah [is] the death for His saints.
And the dust returneth to the earth as it was, And the spirit returneth to God who gave it.
The righteous hath perished, And there is none laying [it] to heart, And men of kindness are gathered, Without any considering that from the face of evil Gathered is the righteous one.
He entereth into peace, they rest on their beds, [Each] is going straightforward.
‘And — a certain man was rich, and was clothed in purple and fine linen, making merry sumptuously every day,
and there was a certain poor man, by name Lazarus, who was laid at his porch, full of sores,
and desiring to be filled from the crumbs that are falling from the table of the rich man; yea, also the dogs, coming, were licking his sores.
‘And it came to pass, that the poor man died, and that he was carried away by the messengers to the bosom of Abraham — and the rich man also died, and was buried;
and in the hades having lifted up his eyes, being in torments, he doth see Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom,
and having cried, he said, Father Abraham, deal kindly with me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and may cool my tongue, because I am distressed in this flame.
‘And Abraham said, Child, remember that thou did receive — thou — thy good things in thy life, and Lazarus in like manner the evil things, and now he is comforted, and thou art distressed;
and besides all these things, between us and you a great chasm is fixed, so that they who are willing to go over from hence unto you are not able, nor do they from thence to us pass through.
‘And he said, I pray thee, then, father, that thou mayest send him to the house of my father,
for I have five brothers, so that he may thoroughly testify to them, that they also may not come to this place of torment.
‘Abraham saith to him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them;
and he said, No, father Abraham, but if any one from the dead may go unto them, they will reform.
And he said to him, If Moses and the prophets they do not hear, neither if one may rise out of the dead will they be persuaded.’
and they were stoning Stephen, calling and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit;’
the last enemy is done away — death;
but we ourselves in ourselves the sentence of the death have had, that we may not be trusting on ourselves, but on God, who is raising the dead,
who out of so great a death did deliver us, and doth deliver, in whom we have hoped that even yet He will deliver;
for the sorrow toward God reformation to salvation not to be repented of doth work, and the sorrow of the world doth work death,
And I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, that ye may not sorrow, as also the rest who have not hope,
for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God those asleep through Jesus he will bring with him,
for this to you we say in the word of the Lord, that we who are living — who do remain over to the presence of the Lord — may not precede those asleep,
because the Lord himself, in a shout, in the voice of a chief-messenger, and in the trump of God, shall come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first,
then we who are living, who are remaining over, together with them shall be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in air, and so always with the Lord we shall be;
so, then, comfort ye one another in these words.
and might deliver those, whoever, with fear of death, throughout all their life, were subjects of bondage,
we — we have known that we have passed out of the death to the life, because we love the brethren; he who is not loving the brother doth remain in the death.
And I heard a voice out of the heaven saying to me, ‘Write: Happy are the dead who in the Lord are dying from this time!’ ‘Yes, (saith the Spirit,) That they may rest from their labours — and their works do follow them!’