for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
Yes, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet fails to enjoy good, don’t all go to one place?
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
For there are many words that create vanity. What does that profit man?
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?
For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity.
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.
Also don’t take heed to all words that are spoken, lest you hear your servant curse you;
I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.
Behold, I have only found this: that God made man upright; but they search for many schemes.”
for the king’s word is supreme. Who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
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.
All this I have seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt.
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.
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.
When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (for also there is that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes),
then I saw all the work of God, that man can’t find out the work that is done under the sun, because however much a man labors to seek it out, yet he won’t find it. Yes even though a wise man thinks he can comprehend it, he won’t be able to find it.
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.
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.
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.
Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
Then I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
Wisdom is better than weapons of war; but one sinner destroys much good.
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, the sort of error which proceeds from the ruler.
Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in a low place.
I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking like servants on the earth.
He who digs a pit may fall into it; and whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.
Woe to you, land, when your king is a child, and your princes eat in the morning!
Don’t curse the king, no, not in your thoughts; and don’t curse the rich in your bedroom: for a bird of the sky may carry your voice, and that which has wings may tell the matter.
Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!”
Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.
Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a besieged city.
How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.
Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water.
For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.
It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of Yahweh’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.
He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled from the east, with those who practice divination like the Philistines, and they clasp hands with the children of foreigners.
Their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures. Their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.
Their land also is full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.
Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty.
The lofty looks of man will be brought low, the haughtiness of men will be bowed down, and Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day.
For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and haughty, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:
For all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, for all the oaks of Bashan,
For all the high mountains, for all the hills that are lifted up,
For every lofty tower, for every fortified wall,
For all the ships of Tarshish, and for all pleasant imagery.
The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and Yahweh alone shall be exalted in that day.
The idols shall utterly pass away.
Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.
In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
To go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.
Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?
I will give boys to be their princes, and children shall rule over them.
The people will be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor. The child will behave himself proudly against the old man, and the wicked against the honorable.
For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don’t hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves.
Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them; for the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him.
As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.
Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and their leaders: “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
Moreover Yahweh said, “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes, walking to trip as they go, jingling ornaments on their feet;
In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, the headbands, the crescent necklaces,
the earrings, the bracelets, the veils,
the headdresses, the ankle chains, the sashes, the perfume bottles, the charms,
the hand mirrors, the fine linen garments, the tiaras, and the shawls.
Her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate and sit on the ground.
I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned nor hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!
In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied.
The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don’t respect the work of Yahweh, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who rejoices among them, descend into it.
So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;
Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope;
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!
Therefore Yahweh’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them, and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out.
whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.
They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.
And Yahweh has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many within the land.
“Let’s go up against Judah, and tear it apart, and let’s divide it among ourselves, and set up a king within it, even the son of Tabeel.”
It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels, shall be for briers and thorns.
For before the child knows how to say, ‘My father,’ and, ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried away by the king of Assyria.”
“Because this people have refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son;
now therefore, behold, the Lord brings upon them the mighty flood waters of the River: the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will come up over all its channels, and go over all its banks.
Make an uproar, you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Listen, all you from far countries: dress for battle, and be shattered! Dress for battle, and be shattered!
“Don’t say, ‘A conspiracy!’ concerning all about which this people say, ‘A conspiracy!’ neither fear their threats, nor be terrorized.
and look to the earth, and see distress, darkness, and the gloom of anguish. They will be driven into thick darkness.
“The bricks have fallen, but we will build with cut stone. The sycamore fig trees have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.”
For wickedness burns like a fire. It devours the briers and thorns; yes, it kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
One will devour on the right hand, and be hungry; and he will eat on the left hand, and they will not be satisfied. Everyone will eat the flesh of his own arm:
Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees;
What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?
However he doesn’t mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.
For he has said, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding: and I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I have brought down their rulers.
My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest, and like one gathers eggs that are abandoned, I have gathered all the earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or that opened their mouth, or chirped.”
Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire.












