1734 verses about Life

I said of laughter, “It is foolishness”; and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?”

I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives.

Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness.

The wise man’s eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness—and yet I perceived that one event happens to them all.

Then I said in my heart, “As it happens to the fool, so will it happen even to me; and why was I then more wise?” Then I said in my heart that this also is vanity.

For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no memory for ever, since in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. Indeed, the wise man must die just like the fool!

So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.

For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can’t find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice, and to do good as long as they live.

Also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, is the gift of God.

That which is has been long ago, and that which is to be has been long ago: and God seeks again that which is passed away.

I said in my heart, “As for the sons of men, God tests them, so that they may see that they themselves are like animals.

For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one breath; and man has no advantage over the animals: for all is vanity.

All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Therefore I saw that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what will be after him?

Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive.

I saw all the living who walk under the sun, that they were with the youth, the other, who succeeded him.

Moreover the profit of the earth is for all. The king profits from the field.

Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand.

As he came out of his mother’s womb, naked shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand.

Behold, that which I have seen to be good and proper is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor, in which he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; for this is his portion.

Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God.

For he shall not often reflect on the days of his life; because God occupies him with the joy of his heart.

If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:

Yes, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet fails to enjoy good, don’t all go to one place?

For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living?

For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death better than the day of one’s birth.

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

Wisdom is as good as an inheritance. Yes, it is more excellent for those who see the sun.

For wisdom is a defense, even as money is a defense; but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

All this I have seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing.

Don’t be too wicked, neither be foolish. Why should you die before your time?

There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.

So I saw the wicked buried. Indeed they came also from holiness. They went and were forgotten in the city where they did this. This also is vanity.

Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.

But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow; because he doesn’t fear God.

There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: for that will accompany him in his labor all the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.

For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them.

All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn’t sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears an oath.

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event to all: yes also, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

For to him who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything, neither do they have any more a reward; for their memory is forgotten.

Also their love, their hatred, and their envy has perished long ago; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.

Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.

Let your garments be always white, and don’t let your head lack oil.

Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity: for that is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you labor under the sun.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.

For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.

A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes the life glad; and money is the answer for all things.

As you don’t know what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child; even so you don’t know the work of God who does all.

Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to see the sun.

Yes, if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many. All that comes is vanity.

Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the spring, or the wheel broken at the cistern,

and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!”

This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.

For, behold, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, flowing streams from Lebanon. Beloved

It will happen, that he who is left in Zion, and he who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem;

“Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.”

I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.

What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul.

Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live.

The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children.

Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in Yahweh’s house.

The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.

Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.”

Thus says God Yahweh, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it.

and they will spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses.

He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a cypress tree, and the rain nourishes it.

I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens; and I have commanded all their army.

“Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

and Yahweh will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters don’t fail.

“No more will there be an infant who only lives a few days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; for the child will die one hundred years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old will be accursed.

They will build houses, and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

They will not build, and another inhabit. They will not plant, and another eat: for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my chosen will long enjoy the work of their hands.

Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to be delivered?” says Yahweh. “Shall I who cause to give birth shut the womb?” says your God.

“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,” says Yahweh, “so your offspring and your name shall remain.

“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”