God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that would understand, or seek after God.

How can they have understanding, that are the workers of wickedness, eating up my people as it were bread, and calling not upon God?

O that the salvation were given unto Israel out of Zion! O that the LORD would deliver his people out of captivity! Then should Jacob rejoice, and Israel should be right glad.

If it were mine enemy that reviled me, I could bear it: or if one that ought me evil will did threaten me, I would hide myself from him.

My soul is satisfied, even as it were with marrow and fatness, when my mouth praiseth thee with joyful lips.

O sing unto God, sing praises to his name; magnify him that rideth upon the heavens, as it were upon a horse. Praise him in his name Jah, and rejoice before him.

Kings with their armies did flee, and were discomfited; and they of the household divided the spoil.

I am become as it were a monster unto many, but my sure trust is in thee.

Nevertheless, my feet were almost gone; my treadings had well nigh slipped.

So foolish was I, and ignorant, even as it were a beast before thee.

The proud shall be robbed and sleep their sleep, and all the men whose hands were mighty have found nothing.

Then remembered I the times of old, and the years that were past.

The waters saw thee, O God; the waters saw thee, and were afraid, the depths were moved.

that their posterity might know it, and the children which were yet unborn, to the intent that when they came up, they might show their children the same;

So they ate, and were filled, for he gave them their own desire.

And they were not disappointed of their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

Therefore their days were consumed in vanity, and suddenly their years were gone.

For he considered that they were but flesh; even a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given in marriage.

Their priests were slain with the sword, and there were no widows to made lamentation.

The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedar-trees.

"I eased his shoulder from the burden, and his hands were delivered from making the pots.

Before the mountains were brought forth, before the earth and the world were made, thou art God from everlasting and world without end.

For when thou art angry, all our days are gone; we bring our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told.

For my days are consumed away like smoke, and my bones are burnt up as it were a firebrand.

I watch, and am even as it were a sparrow that sitteth alone upon the housetop.

Thou deckest thyself with light, as it were with a garment, and spreadest out the heaven like a curtain -

He sent darkness, and it was dark; for they were not obedient unto his word.

He smote their vineyards and fig trees, and destroyed the trees that were in their coasts.

Egypt was glad at their departing: for they were afraid of them.

Our fathers regarded not thy wonders in Egypt, neither kept they thy great goodness in remembrance, but were disobedient at the sea, even at the reed sea.

but were mingled among the Heathen, and learned their works -

Thus were they stained with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.

and gave them over into the hand of the Heathen; and they that hated them, were lords over them.

Many a time did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their own inventions, and were brought down in their wickedness.

because they were not obedient to the commandments of God, but lightly regarded the counsel of the most highest - he also brought down their hearts through heaviness.

Foolish men were plagued for their offense, and because of their wickedness.

Their soul abhorred all manner of meat, and they were even hard at death's door.

He sent his word, and healed them; and they were saved from their destruction.

O that my ways were made so direct, that I might keep thy statutes!

If my delight were not in thy law, I should perish in my trouble.

they had swallowed us up alive, when they were so wrathfully displeased at us.

{A song of the stairs} When the LORD turneth again the captivity of Zion, then were we like unto them that dream.

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in thy book were all my members written, which day by day were fashioned, when as yet there was not one of them.

Yea, I hate them right sore, even as though they were mine enemies.

Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he spoke the word, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created.

suddenly to follow her - as it were an ox to the slaughter, and like as it were a fool that laugheth when he goeth to the stocks to be punished -

When I was born, there were neither depths nor springs of water.

Before the foundations of the mountains were laid, yea before all hills was I born.

It were better to come against a she Bear robbed of her whelps, than against a fool in his foolishness.

for thereunto I applied my mind: that I might know what were wisdom and understanding, what were error and foolishness. And I perceived that this also was but a vexation of mind:

So I thought in my heart, to withdraw my flesh from wine, to apply my mind unto wisdom, and to comprehend foolishness until the time that among all the things which are under the Sun, I might see what were best for men to do, so long as they live under heaven.

I bought servants and maidens, and had a great household. As for cattle and sheep, I had more substance of them than all they that were before me in Jerusalem.

I communed with mine own heart also concerning the children of men: how God hath chosen them, and yet letteth them appear as though they were beasts.

So I turned me, and considered all the violent wrong that is done under the Sun, and beheld the tears of such as were oppressed; and there was no man to comfort them or that would deliver and defend them from the violence of their oppressors.

Say not thou, "What is the cause that the days of the old time were better than they that be now?" For that were no wise question.

For I have oft seen the ungodly brought to their graves, and fallen down from the high and glorious place; insomuch that they were forgotten in the city where they were had in so high and great reputation. This is also a vain thing.

If a principal spirit be given thee to bear rule, be not negligent then in thine office: for so shall great wickedness be put down, as it were with a medicine.

I see servants ride upon horses, and princes going upon their feet as it were servants.

Who is this, that cometh up out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, as it were a smell of Myrrh, frankincense and all manner spices of the Apothecary?

His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the water brooks, as though they were washed with milk and set like pearls in gold.

I went down into the nut garden, to see what grew by the brooks, to look if the vineyard flourished, and if the pomegranates were shot forth.

Thy neck is as it were a tower of ivory; thine eyes are like the water pools in Heshbon, by the port of Bathrabbim. Thy nose is like the tower of Lebanon, which looketh toward Damascus.

Your land lieth waste, your cities are burnt up, your enemies devour your land, and ye must be fain to stand, and look upon it: and it is desolate, as it were with enemies in a battle.

and set thy judges again as they were sometime, and thy Senators as they were from the beginning. Then shalt thou be called the righteous city, the faithful city.

Then shall the sheep eat their appointed fodder; and the rich mens' lands, that were laid waste, shall strangers devour.

Woe be unto vain persons, that draw wickedness unto them with cords of vanity; and sin, as it were with a cart rope.

Their cry is as it were of a lion, and the roaring of them like lion's whelps. They shall roar, and haunch up the prey, and no man shall recover it or get it from them.

Now when the house of David - that is Ahaz - heard word thereof, that Syria and Ephraim were confederate together: His heart quaked, yea and the hearts also of his people, like as a tree in the field that is moved with the wind.

At the same time all vineyards - though there be a thousand vines in one, and were sold for a thousand silverlings - shall be turned to briers and thorns.

For the ungodly burn, as a fire in the briers and thorns: And as it were out of a fire in a wood or a red bush, so ascendeth the smoke of their pride.

For this cause shall the wrath of the LORD of Hosts fall upon the land, and the people shall be consumed, as it were with fire: no man shall spare his brother,

As who say, "I were able to win the kingdom of the Idolaters and their gods, but not Jerusalem and Samaria.

My hand hath found out the Hosts of the people, as it were a nest. And like as eggs, that were laid here and there, are gathered together: So do I gather all countries. And there is no man, that dare be so bold as to touch a feather, that dare open his mouth, or once whisper."

But doth the axe boost itself, against him that heweth therewith? Or doth the saw make any bragging, against him that ruleth it? That were even like as if the rod did exalt itself against him that beareth it: or as though the staff should magnify itself, as who say it were not wood.

Therefore shall the LORD of Hosts send him poverty in his riches, and burn up his power, as it were with a fire.

So that then thou shalt say, "I will praise thee O LORD, that though thou were angry with me, yet thine anger is turned, and thou hast comforted me.

Rejoice not, thou whole Philistia, as though the rod of him that beateth thee were broken: For out of the serpent's root, there shall come an adder, and the fruit shall be a fiery worm.

They went up to the idols' house, even to Dibon to the high places, to weep for Nebo; and Moab did mourn for Medeba. All their heads were bald, and all their beards shaven.

In their streets were they girded about with sackcloth. In all the tops of their houses and streets was there nothing, but mourning and weeping.

The waters of Nimrim were dried up, the grass was withered, and the herbs destroyed, and the green things gone.

Because the waters of Dimon were full of blood, I will add more unto Dimon: and lions upon the remnant of the land, and on them that are escaped.

The suburbs also of Heshbon were made waste, and the princes of the Gentiles hewed down the vineyards of Sibmah, which were planted with noble grapes, and spread unto Jazer, and went unto the end of the desert; whose branches stretched their fellows forth beyond the sea.

Therefore I mourned for Jazer, and for the vineyards of Sibmah with great sorrow. I poured my tears upon Heshbon and Elealeh, for all their songs were laid down, in their harvest and gathering of their grapes.

At the same time shall their strong cities be desolate, like as were once the forsaken plows and corn, which they forsook, for fear of the children of Israel.

They shall be also at their wits end, and ashamed one of another: the Egyptians of the Ethiopians, and the Ethiopians of the Egyptians, considering what glory they were in afore.

With this, the reins of my back were full of pain: Pangs came upon me, as upon a woman in her travail. It made me stoop when I heard it, and it vexed me when I saw it.

'What hast thou here to do? And whom hast thou here? That thou shouldest here hew thee out a sepulchre, as it were one that causeth a costly tomb of stone to be made for himself, or that graveth a habitation out of a rock?

For by sea were there fruits brought unto thee, and all manner of corn by water. Thou wast the common market of all people.

Who hath devised such things upon Tyre the crown of all cities, whose merchants and Captains were the highest and principal of the world?

Behold, for thine example: The Chaldeans were such a people, that no man was like them, Assyria builded them: he set up his castles and palaces, and broke them down again.

Their harvest shall be burnt; their wives, which were their beauty when they came forth, shall be defiled. For it is a people without understanding, and therefore he that created them, shall not favour them; and he that made them, shall not be merciful to them.

They were all ashamed of the people that could do them no good, and that might not help them, nor show them any profit - but were their confusion and rebuke."

Were the people of the Gentiles - whom my progenitors conquered - delivered at any time through their gods? As namely, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden, which dwell at Telassar.

and cast their gods in the fire. Notwithstanding, those were no gods; but the works of men's hands, of wood or stone, therefore have they destroyed them.

The Isles saw and did fear, and ye ends of the earth were abashed, drew nigh, and came hither.

They are like, as if thou understoodest much, and keptest nothing: or if one heard well, but were not obedient.

Bel is fallen, and Nebo is broken down: whose images were a burden for the beasts and cattle, to overladen them, and to make them weary.

Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all ye that remain yet of the household of Israel, whom I have borne from your mother's womb, and brought you up from your birth, till ye were grown:

And some done now not of old time, whereof thou never heardest before they were brought to pass: that thou cannot say "I knew of them."