This is the way of a woman committing adultery: she eats and wipes her mouth, and says "I have not done wrong."

All things toil continuously; no one can ever finish describing this. The eye is never satisfied with seeing, and the ear is never filled with hearing.

There is a thing [of] which it is said, "Look at this! This is new!" [But] it already existed in ages past before us.

So {I dedicated myself} to learn about wisdom and [to] learn about delusion and folly. However, I discovered that this also [is] chasing wind.

I said {to myself}, "Come! I will test pleasure {to see whether it is worthwhile}." But look, "This also [is] vanity!"

I neither withheld anything from my eyes that they desired, nor did I deprive any pleasure from my heart. My heart rejoiced in all my toil, for this was my reward from all my toil.

So I said {to myself}, "{If I also suffer the same fate as the fool}, {what advantage is my great wisdom}?" So I said {to myself}, "This also [is] vanity!"

And who knows [whether] he will be wise or foolish? Yet he will exercise control of all [the fruit of] my toil with which I toiled wisely under the sun. This also [is] vanity!

For although a person may toil with great wisdom and skill, he must leave his reward to someone who has not toiled for it. This also [is] vanity and a great calamity.

All his days [are] painful, his labor [brings] grief, and his heart cannot rest at night. This also [is] vanity!

There is nothing better for a person than to eat and drink and {find delight} in his toil. For I also realized that this [is] from the hand of God!

For to the person who [is] good in his eyes, he gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and heaping up only to give [it] to [him who is] pleasing to him. This also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

And for anyone to eat and drink, that is, {to enjoy the fruit of all his toil}, this also is a gift of God.

So I concluded that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy [the fruit of] his labor, for this is his lot in life. {For no one knows what will happen in the future.}

I also realized that all [of the] toil and all [of] the skillful work that is done--it [is] envy between one man and {another}. This also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

Sometimes a man is all alone with no companion; he also has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eye is not satisfied with wealth. [He laments,] "For whom am I toiling and depriving {myself} of pleasure?" This also [is] vanity--it is an unhappy business!

There is no end to all the people, to all who were before him. Yet the later generation will not rejoice in him, for this also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

Whoever loves money is not satisfied [with] money, and whoever loves wealth [is] not [satisfied with] profit. This also [is] vanity!

This also [is] a grievous illness. Exactly as he came, so he will go. What profit [does] he gain for all his toil for the wind?

Look! I have discovered what is good and fitting: to eat and to drink and {to enjoy} all [the fruit of] the toil with which one toils under the sun during the number of the days of his life that God gives to him--for this [is] his lot.

This indeed is a gift of God: everyone to whom God gives wealth and possessions, he also empowers him {to enjoy them}, to accept his lot, and to rejoice in [the fruit of] his toil.

God gives a man wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires; yet God does not enable him to enjoy it--instead someone else ends up enjoying it. This [is] vanity--indeed, it [is] a grievous ill!

{Better to be content with what your eyes see than for your soul to constantly crave more}. This also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

Like the sound of thorns under a pot, so also the laughter of fools. This also [is] vanity!

Do not say, "Why were the former days better than these?" For [it is] not from wisdom [that] you ask this.

All this I have tested with wisdom. I said, "I will be wise!" but {it was beyond my grasp}.

"Look! I found this," said the Teacher, "while trying to find how the plan fits together.

Look! This alone I found: God made mankind upright, but they have devised many schemes."

I saw all this as I applied my heart to all the deeds done under the sun: {sometimes those in authority harm others}.

Meanwhile, I saw the wicked being [honorably] buried, but those who came and went from the holy place were forgotten in the city, even though they had done so. This also [is] vanity!

There [is] a vanity that happens on earth: sometimes the righteous suffer what the wicked deserve, and sometimes the wicked receive what the righteous deserve. I said, "This also [is] vanity!"

So I recommend enjoyment. For there [is] nothing better for man under the sun than to eat and to drink and to rejoice. This will accompany him in his toil the days of his life that God gives to him under the sun.

So all this I laid to my heart, and I concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, [are] in the hand of God. So no one knows anything that will [come] to them, whether [it will be] love or hatred.

This [is] the {injustice} that is done under the sun: the same fate [comes] to everyone. Also the hearts of {humans} are full [of] evil; delusion [is] in their hearts during their lives, and then they die.

Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which he gives you under the sun, because this [is] your lot in life and in the toil with which you toil under the sun.

I have also seen this [example of] wisdom under the sun, and it [seemed] great to me.

Sow your seed in the morning, and do not let your hands rest in the evening, for you do not know what will prosper-- whether this or that, or whether both of them alike will succeed.

Now that all has been heard, here is the final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commandments, for this [is] the whole [duty] of man.

What [is] this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense from all the fragrant powders of the merchant?

{His mouth} [is] sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This [is] my beloved; this [is] my friend, {O young women of Jerusalem}.

"Who [is] this that looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, {bright as the sun}, {overwhelming as an army with banners}?"

Who [is] this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother {conceived you}; there she who was in labor gave birth to you.

When you come to appear before me, who asked for this from your hand: you trampling my courts?

And I will restore your judges, as at the first, and your counselors, as at the beginning. After this {you will be called} the city of righteousness, faithful city.

Indeed, a man will seize his brother [in] the house of his father: "{You have a cloak}; you shall be a leader for us, and this heap of ruins [shall be] under your hand!"

And this shall happen: There will be a stench instead of perfume, and a rope instead of a sash, and baldness instead of a well-set hairdo, and a clothing wrap of sackcloth instead of a rich robe, branding instead of beauty.

And this shall happen: He who is left in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone written for life in Jerusalem,

And he touched my mouth, and he said, "Look! This has touched your lips and has removed your guilt, and your sin is annulled."

And he said, "Go and say to this people, 'Keep on listening and do not comprehend! And keep on looking and do not understand!'

Make the heart of this people insensitive, and make its ears unresponsive, and shut its eyes so that it may not look with its eyes and listen with its ears and comprehend [with] its mind and turn back, and it may be healed [for] him."

This happened in the days of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah. Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up [to] Jerusalem for warfare against it, but he was not able to fight against it.

And this shall happen: On that day, Yahweh will whistle for the fly that [is] at the end of the stream of Egypt and the bee that [is] in the land of Assyria.

And this shall happen: on that day, a young man will keep a young cow of [the] herd and two sheep alive.

And this shall happen: because of the abundance of milk production, he will eat curds, for every one that is left in the midst of the land will eat curds and honey.

And this shall happen on that day: Every place where there are a thousand vines for a thousand silver [pieces] will become briers, and it will be thornbushes.

"Because this people has refused the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices [over] Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

For Yahweh said this to me {while his hand weighed heavily on me}, and he {warned me not to walk} in the way of this people, saying,

"You must not call conspiracy everything that this people calls conspiracy, and you must not {share its fear}, and you must not be in dread.

for teaching and for testimony?" {surely they [who] speak like this have no dawn}.

And it will pass through it distressed and hungry, and this shall happen: when it is hungry, it will be enraged, and it will curse its king and its gods, and it will face upwar

{His dominion will grow continually, and to peace there will be no end} on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and sustain it with justice and righteousness now and forever. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.

Aram from [the] east and Philistines from [the] west-- and they devoured Israel with the whole mouth. He has not turned away his anger in all of this, and his hand is still stretched out.

And the leaders of this people were misleading [them], and those who were led [were] confused.

Therefore the Lord did not rejoice over its young men, and he did not have compassion on its orphans and widows, for everyone [was] godless and an evildoer, and every mouth [was] speaking folly. In all of this his anger did not turn away, and still his hand [is] stretched out.

Manasseh [devoured] Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they [were] against Judah. In all of this his anger has not turned away, and still his hand [is] stretched out.

{save that they bow down under the prisoners and fall under the slain}? In all of this his anger has not turned away, and still his hand [is] stretched out.

But he does not think this, and his heart does not plan this. For [it is] in his heart to destroy and to cut off not a few nations.

And this shall happen: when the Lord has finished all his work against {Mount Zion} and Jerusalem, "I will punish the {arrogance} of the king of Assyria and {his haughtiness}."

And this shall happen: on that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will not continue to lean on [the] one who struck it but will lean on Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, in truth.

And this shall happen: on that day, he will remove his burden from your shoulder and his yoke from your neck, {and a yoke will be destroyed because of fat}.

{This day} {taking a stand} at Nob, he will shake his fist [at] the mountain of the daughter of Zion, [at] the hill of Jerusalem.

And this shall happen on that day: [the] nations shall inquire of the root of Jesse, which shall be standing as a signal to [the] peoples, and his resting place shall be glorious.

And this shall happen on that day: The Lord will again [extend] his hand a second [time] to acquire the remnant of his people that is left, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands of the sea,

Sing praises [to] Yahweh, for he has done a glorious thing; this [is] known in all the earth.

And this shall happen: like a hunted gazelle or sheep {with none to gather them}, they will each turn to his [own] people, and they will each flee to his [own] land.

And [the] nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will take possession of them in the land of Yahweh as slaves and female slaves. And this will happen: they will take their captors captive and rule over their oppressors.

that you will take this taunt against the king of Babylon, and you will say: "How [the] oppressor has ceased! [his] insolence has ceased.

Those who see you will stare at you, they will look closely at you: '[Is] this the man who made the earth tremble, who caused kingdoms to shake,

This [is] the plan that is planned concerning all of the earth; and this [is] the hand that is stretched out over all of the nations.

In the year of the death of king Ahaz there was this oracle:

And this shall be: like a bird fleeing [from] a thrust away nest shall be the daughters of Moab [at the] fords of Arnon.

And this shall happen: when Moab appears, when it is weary upon the high place and it comes to its sanctuary to pray, it will not prevail.

This [was] the word that Yahweh spoke to Moab {in the past}.

"And this shall happen: On that day, the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will become lean.

At [the] time of evening, and look, terror! Before morning he is no more. This [is] the fate of those who plunder us and [the] lot of those who plunder us.

For Yahweh said this to me: "I will be quiet, and I will look from my dwelling place like {clear heat because of light}, like a cloud of dew in [the] heat of harvest."

And [the] inhabitant [of] the coastland will say this on that day: 'Look! This [is] our hope [to] whom we fled for help, to be delivered {from} the king of Assyria, and how shall we escape?'"

For the Lord said this to me: "Go, set watchman in position. He must announce what he sees.

And look [at] this! A man's a chariot [is] coming, a pair of horsemen!" Then he responded and said, "It has fallen! Babylon has fallen! And all the images of her gods are smashed on the ground!"

For the Lord said this to me: "{In one more year}, like [the] years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end.

And this happened: the choicest of your valleys were full of chariots, and the cavalry confidently stood at the gate.

And it was revealed in my ears [by] Yahweh of hosts: "Surely this sin will not be atoned for you until you die!" says the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

The Lord, Yahweh of hosts, says this: "Go! Go to this steward, to Shebna, who [is] over the house:

And this shall happen: On that day I will call to my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah,

{Is this your exultant one}, her origin from the days of long ago? Her feet brought her to dwell afar as an alien.

Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants [were] princes, her traders [the] honored ones of [the] earth?

Look [at] the land of the Chaldeans! {This people no longer exists. Assyria destined} it for wild animals. They erected its siege towers; they demolished its citadel fortresses. It made her like a ruin.

And this will happen on that day: And Tyre [will] be forgotten seventy years, like the days of one king. At [the] end of seventy years, it will be for Tyre like the song of the prostitute:

And this shall happen: at [the] end of seventy years, Yahweh will visit Tyre, and she will return to her harlot's wages, and she will commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

And this shall happen: her merchandise and her harlot's wages [will be] set apart for Yahweh; it will not be stored up, and it will not be hoarded, but her merchandise will be for those who live before the {presence} of Yahweh, for eating to satiation and for fine clothing.