I have longed for thy salvation, O Jehovah, and thy law is my delight.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep: seek thy servant; for I have not forgotten thy commandments.

Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

{A Song of degrees.} Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth oh let Israel say --

Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth; yet they have not prevailed against me.

Surely I have restrained and composed my soul, like a weaned child with its mother: my soul within me is as a weaned child.

This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it.

There will I cause the horn of David to bud forth; I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed.

They have a mouth, and they speak not; eyes have they, and they see not;

They have ears, and they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouth.

All the kings of the earth shall celebrate thee, Jehovah, when they have heard the words of thy mouth;

The proud have hidden a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the way-side; they have set traps for me. Selah.

I have said unto Jehovah, Thou art my God: give ear, O Jehovah, to the voice of my supplications.

{A Psalm of David.} Jehovah, I have called upon thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I call unto thee.

Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, and from the traps of the workers of iniquity.

When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they hidden a snare for me.

For the enemy persecuteth my soul: he hath crushed my life down to the earth; he hath made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.

As long as I live will I praise Jehovah; I will sing psalms unto my God while I have my being.

He hath not dealt thus with any nation; and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Hallelujah!

To execute upon them the judgment written. This honour have all his saints. Hallelujah!

cast in thy lot among us; we will all have one purse:

Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one regarded;

and ye have rejected all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm.

For they sleep not except they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken away unless they have caused some to fall.

and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!

and I have not hearkened unto the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to those that instructed me;

Let thy fountain be blessed; and have joy of the wife of thy youth.

I have peace-offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows:

therefore came I forth to meet thee, to seek earnestly thy face, and I have found thee.

I have decked my bed with tapestry coverlets of variegated linen from Egypt;

I have perfumed my couch with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am intelligence; I have strength.

Come, eat ye of my bread, and drink of the wine that I have mingled.

In the fear of Jehovah is strong confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge.

A wise servant shall rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part in the inheritance among the brethren.

Good living beseemeth not a fool; how much less for a servant to have rule over princes.

The sluggard will not plough by reason of the winter; he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.

Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?

He that soweth unrighteousness shall reap iniquity, and the rod of his wrath shall have an end.

That thy confidence may be in Jehovah, I have made them known to thee this day, even to thee.

Have not I written to thee excellent things, in counsels and knowledge,

Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.

Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou vomit up, and thou wilt have wasted thy sweet words.

The father of a righteous man shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise son shall have joy of him:

let thy father and thy mother have joy, and let her that bore thee rejoice.

'They have smitten me, and I am not sore; they have beaten me, and I knew it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.''

These things also come from the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.

A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool's vexation is heavier than them both.

Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad, that I may have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me.

He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread; but he that followeth the worthless shall have poverty enough.

To have respect of persons is not good; but for a piece of bread will a man transgress.

He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack; but he that withdraweth his eyes shall have many a curse.

He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child, shall in the end have him as a son.

Truly I am more stupid than any one; and I have not a man's intelligence.

I have neither learned wisdom, nor have I the knowledge of the Holy.

Such is the way of an adulterous woman: she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

the locusts have no king, yet they go forth all of them by bands;

There are three things which have a stately step, and four are comely in going:

The heart of her husband confideth in her, and he shall have no lack of spoil.

Many daughters have done worthily, but thou excellest them all.

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and pursuit of the wind.

I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I have become great and have acquired wisdom more than all they that have been before me over Jerusalem; and my heart hath seen much of wisdom and knowledge.

And who knoweth whether he will be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour at which I have laboured, and wherein I have been wise under the sun. This also is vanity.

For what will man have of all his labour and of the striving of his heart, wherewith he hath wearied himself under the sun?

I have seen the travail that God hath given to the sons of men to toil in.

For what befalleth the children of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other, and they have all one breath; and man hath no pre-eminence above the beast: for all is vanity.

And I have seen that there is nothing better than that man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion; for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.

Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one alone be warm?

The sleep of the labourer is sweet, whether he have eaten little or much; but the fulness of the rich doth not suffer him to sleep.

There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt;

or those riches perish by some evil circumstance, and if he have begotten a son, there is nothing in his hand.

Behold what I have seen good and comely: it is to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labour wherewith man laboureth under the sun, all the days of his life which God hath given him: for that is his portion.

There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it is frequent among men:

If a man beget a hundred sons, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, but his soul be not filled with good, and also he have no burial, I say an untimely birth is better than he.

All this have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a righteous man that perisheth by his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his days by his wickedness.

All this have I tried by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.

See this which I have found, saith the Preacher, searching one by one to find out the reason;

which my soul yet seeketh, and I have not found: one man among a thousand have I found, but a woman among all those have I not found.

Only see this which I have found: that God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices.

All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time when man ruleth man to his hurt.

And I have also seen the wicked buried and going away; and such as had acted rightly went from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city. This also is vanity.

This is an evil among all that is done under the sun, that one thing befalleth all: yea, also the heart of the children of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live; and after that, they have to go to the dead.

For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.

Their love also, and their hatred, and their envy is already perished; neither have they any more for ever a portion in all that is done under the sun.

This also have I seen as wisdom under the sun, and it was great unto me.

There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as an error that proceedeth from the ruler:

I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.

And remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, of which thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

Look not upon me, because I am black; Because the sun hath looked upon me. My mother's children were angry with me: They made me keeper of the vineyards; Mine own vineyard have I not kept.

As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, So is my beloved among the sons: In his shadow have I rapture and sit down; And his fruit is sweet to my taste.

The watchmen that go about the city found me: Have ye seen him whom my soul loveth?

Thy teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep, Which go up from the washing; Which have all borne twins, And none is barren among them.

I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, beloved ones!

I have put off my tunic, how should I put it on? I have washed my feet, how should I pollute them? --

Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep Which go up from the washing; Which have all borne twins, And none is barren among them.

The mandrakes yield fragrance; And at our gates are all choice fruits, new and old: I have laid them up for thee, my beloved.

We have a little sister, And she hath no breasts: What shall we do for our sister In the day when she shall be spoken for? --

Hear, ye heavens, and give ear, thou earth! for Jehovah hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children; and they have rebelled against me.