1734 verses about Life

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.”

Death will be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says Yahweh of Armies.

But Yahweh is the true God. He is the living God, and an everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth trembles. The nations aren’t able to withstand his indignation.

Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his steps.

For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green; and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit.

Cursed is the day in which I was born. Don’t let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.

because he didn’t kill me from the womb. So my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.

Why did I come out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

“You shall say to this people, ‘Yahweh says: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.

He who remains in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he who goes out, and passes over to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he will live, and he will escape with his life.

But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that they didn’t give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

‘I have made the earth, the men, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm. I give it to whom it seems right to me.

“Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit.

They will come and sing in the height of Zion, and will flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd. Their soul will be as a watered garden. They will not sorrow any more at all.

Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.”

“Yahweh says, ‘He who remains in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live, and he will escape with his life, and he will live.’

So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying, “As Yahweh lives, who made us this soul, I will not put you to death, neither will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life.”

But Jeremiah said, “They won’t deliver you. Obey, I beg you, Yahweh’s voice, in that which I speak to you; so it will be well with you, and your soul will live.

For I will surely save you, and you won’t fall by the sword, but you will escape with your life; because you have put your trust in me,” says Yahweh.’”

But ten men were found among those who said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us; for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey.” So he stopped, and didn’t kill them among their brothers.

Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces who were with him took all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after he had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the men of war, with the women, the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon.

Do you seek great things for yourself? Don’t seek them; for, behold, I will bring evil on all flesh,’ says Yahweh; ‘but I will let you escape with your life wherever you go.’”

and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life.

For his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.

Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.

Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life.

We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.

When I tell the wicked, ‘You will surely die;’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man will die in his iniquity; but I will require his blood at your hand.

Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he will surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul.”

For the seller won’t return to that which is sold, although they are still alive; for the vision concerns the whole multitude of it. None will return. None will strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.

“‘“When I passed by you, and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ Yes, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’

I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and you increased and grew great, and you attained to excellent ornament. Your breasts were formed, and your hair grew; yet you were naked and bare.

It was planted in a good soil by many waters, that it might produce branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a good vine.”’

I will plant it in the mountain of the height of Israel; and it will produce boughs, and bear fruit, and be a good cedar. Birds of every kind will dwell in the shade of its branches.

“As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “you shall not use this proverb any more in Israel.

has walked in my statutes, and has kept my ordinances, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live,” says the Lord Yahweh.

who has withdrawn his hand from the poor, who hasn’t received interest or increase, has executed my ordinances, has walked in my statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father. He shall surely live.

“Yet you say, ‘Why doesn’t the son bear the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done that which is lawful and right, and has kept all my statutes, and has done them, he will surely live.

The soul who sins, he shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.

“But if the wicked turns from all his sins that he has committed, and keeps all my statutes, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live. He shall not die.

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” says the Lord Yahweh; “and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?

“But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, should he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done will be remembered. In his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them he shall die.

Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is lawful and right, he will save his soul alive.

Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live. He shall not die.

For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Therefore turn yourselves, and live!

“‘Your mother was like a vine in your blood, planted by the waters. It was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

I gave them my statutes, and showed them my ordinances, which if a man does, he will live in them.

“‘“But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances, which if a man keeps, he shall live in them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them.

The waters nourished it. The deep made it to grow. Its rivers ran all around its plantation; and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.