And men will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
Surely there is a God who judges on earth!”

Behold, they belch forth with their mouth;
Swords are in their lips,
For, they say, “Who hears?”

They hold fast to themselves an evil purpose;
They talk of laying snares secretly;
They say, “Who can see them?”

Say to God, “How awesome are Your works!
Because of the greatness of Your power Your enemies will give feigned obedience to You.

Let those be turned back because of their shame
Who say, “Aha, aha!”

Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
And let those who love Your salvation say continually,
“Let God be magnified.”

They say, “How does God know?
And is there knowledge with the Most High?”

Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Let there be known among the nations in our sight,
Vengeance for the blood of Your servants which has been shed.

I will hear what God the Lord will say;
For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones;
But let them not turn back to folly.

Then those who sing as well as those who play the flutes shall say,
“All my springs of joy are in you.”

You turn man back into dust
And say, “Return, O children of men.”

I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!”

If I should say, “My foot has slipped,”
Your lovingkindness, O Lord, will hold me up.

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns;
Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved;
He will judge the peoples with equity.”

I say, “O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days,
Your years are throughout all generations.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
From everlasting even to everlasting.
And let all the people say, “Amen.”
Praise the Lord!

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary

A Psalm of David.
The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

Why should the nations say,
“Where, now, is their God?”

Oh let Israel say,
“His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

Oh let the house of Aaron say,
“His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

Oh let those who fear the Lord say,
“His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

My eyes fail with longing for Your word,
While I say, “When will You comfort me?”

For the sake of my brothers and my friends,
I will now say, “May peace be within you.”

A Song of Ascents, of David.
“Had it not been the Lord who was on our side,”
Let Israel now say,

A Song of Ascents.
“Many times they have persecuted me from my youth up,”
Let Israel now say,

Nor do those who pass by say,
“The blessing of the Lord be upon you;
We bless you in the name of the Lord.”

If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”

If they say, “Come with us,
Let us lie in wait for blood,
Let us ambush the innocent without cause;

Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come back,
And tomorrow I will give it,”
When you have it with you.

And you say, “How I have hated instruction!
And my heart spurned reproof!

Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
And call understanding your intimate friend;

So she seizes him and kisses him
And with a brazen face she says to him:

“Whoever is naive, let him turn in here!”
To him who lacks understanding she says,

“Whoever is naive, let him turn in here,”
And to him who lacks understanding she says,

Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart,
I am pure from my sin”?

“Bad, bad,” says the buyer,
But when he goes his way, then he boasts.

Do not say, “I will repay evil”;
Wait for the Lord, and He will save you.

It is a trap for a man to say rashly, “It is holy!”
And after the vows to make inquiry.

The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside;
I will be killed in the streets!”

For as he thinks within himself, so he is.
He says to you, “Eat and drink!”
But his heart is not with you.

If you say, “See, we did not know this,”
Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts?
And does He not know it who keeps your soul?
And will He not render to man according to his work?

He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,”
Peoples will curse him, nations will abhor him;

Do not say, “Thus I shall do to him as he has done to me;
I will render to the man according to his work.”

The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road!
A lion is in the open square!”

So is the man who deceives his neighbor,
And says, “Was I not joking?”

He who robs his father or his mother
And says, “It is not a transgression,”
Is the companion of a man who destroys.

That I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or that I not be in want and steal,
And profane the name of my God.

The leech has two daughters,
“Give,” “Give.”
There are three things that will not be satisfied,
Four that will not say, “Enough”:

Sheol, and the barren womb,
Earth that is never satisfied with water,
And fire that never says, “Enough.”

This is the way of an adulterous woman:
She eats and wipes her mouth,
And says, “I have done no wrong.”

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

Is there anything of which one might say,
“See this, it is new”?
Already it has existed for ages
Which were before us.

Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?

If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, “Better the miscarriage than he,

Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

“Behold, I have discovered this,” says the Preacher, “adding one thing to another to find an explanation,

I say, “Keep the command of the king because of the oath before God.

Since the word of the king is authoritative, who will say to him, “What are you doing?”

There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility.

and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, “I know,” he cannot discover.

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 delight in them”;

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

“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?”
Says the Lord.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle;
And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats.

“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.

And many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us concerning His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For the law will go forth from Zion
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Say to the righteous that it will go well with them,
For they will eat the fruit of their actions.

Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;
And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near
And come to pass, that we may know it!”

and say to him, ‘Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.

thus says the Lord God: “It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass.

“You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’
In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,
And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.

When they say to you, “Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?

For it says, “Are not my princes all kings?

So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness.”

Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian who strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you, the way Egypt did.

Then you will say on that day,
“I will give thanks to You, O Lord;
For although You were angry with me,
Your anger is turned away,
And You comfort me.

And in that day you will say,
“Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name.
Make known His deeds among the peoples;
Make them remember that His name is exalted.”

that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,
“How the oppressor has ceased,
And how fury has ceased!

“They will all respond and say to you,
‘Even you have been made weak as we,
You have become like us.

The princes of Zoan are mere fools;
The advice of Pharaoh’s wisest advisers has become stupid.
How can you men say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings”?

So the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, such is our hope, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and we, how shall we escape?’”

For thus the Lord says to me,
“Go, station the lookout, let him report what he sees.

The watchman says,
“Morning comes but also night.
If you would inquire, inquire;
Come back again.”

Therefore I say, “Turn your eyes away from me,
Let me weep bitterly,
Do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

But the Lord of hosts revealed Himself to me,
“Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you
Until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.

Thus says the Lord God of hosts,
“Come, go to this steward,
To Shebna, who is in charge of the royal household,

From the ends of the earth we hear songs, “Glory to the Righteous One,”
But I say, “Woe to me! Woe to me! Alas for me!
The treacherous deal treacherously,
And the treacherous deal very treacherously.”

“For He says,
‘Order on order, order on order,
Line on line, line on line,
A little here, a little there.’”

Therefore thus says the Lord God,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone,
A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed.
He who believes in it will not be disturbed.

The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.”

Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the Lord,
And whose deeds are done in a dark place,
And they say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”

You turn things around!
Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay,
That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”;
Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale;

Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”;
And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right,
Speak to us pleasant words,
Prophesy illusions.

Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Since you have rejected this word
And have put your trust in oppression and guile, and have relied on them,

And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, “Be gone!”

For thus says the Lord to me,
“As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey,
Against which a band of shepherds is called out,
And he will not be terrified at their voice nor disturbed at their noise,
So will the Lord of hosts come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”

“Now I will arise,” says the Lord,
“Now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up.

And no resident will say, “I am sick”;
The people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.