If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:

For there are many words that create vanity. What does that profit man?

Wisdom is a strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.

Also do not 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.

for the king's word is supreme. Who can say to him, "What are you doing?"

Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.

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.

For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn't know it; all is before them.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.

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.

Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength. Nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.

The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the cry of him who rules among fools.

The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but a fool is swallowed by his own lips.

Blessed are you, land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness.

If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth; and if a tree falls toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there shall it be.

Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;

in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look out of the windows are darkened,

Also, they are afraid of heights, and of terrors in the way; and the almond tree blossoms, and the grasshopper is burdened, and the caper bush fails; because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets:

The words of the wise are like goads; and like nails well fastened are words from the masters of collections, which are given from one shepherd.

Take me away with you. Let us hurry. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will praise your love more than wine. They are right to love you.

Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels.

Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves.

Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant; and our couch is verdant.

The beams of our house are cedars. Our rafters are firs.

The fig tree ripens her green figs. The vines are in blossom. They give forth their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away."

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom.

Behold, it is Solomon's carriage. Sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel.

They all handle the sword, and are expert in war. Every man has his sword on his thigh, because of fear in the night.

Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, that descend from Mount Gilead.

Your teeth are like a newly shorn flock, which have come up from the washing, where every one of them has twins. None is bereaved among them.

Your lips are like scarlet thread. Your mouth is lovely. Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.

Your two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a roe, which feed among the lilies.

You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you.

Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits: henna with spikenard plants,

His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks, washed with milk, mounted like jewels.

His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes. His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.

His hands are like rings of gold set with beryl. His body is like ivory work overlaid with sapphires.

His legs are like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

You are beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners.

Your teeth are like a flock of ewes, which have come up from the washing; of which every one has twins; none is bereaved among them.

Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.

There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, and virgins without number.

How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince's daughter. Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful workman.

Your two breasts are like two fawns, that are twins of a roe.

Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bathrabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus.

How beautiful and how pleasant you are, love, for delights.

Your mouth like the best wine, that goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding through the lips of those who are asleep.

Let's go early up to the vineyards. Let's see whether the vine has budded, its blossom is open, and the pomegranates are in flower. There I will give you my love.

The mandrakes give forth fragrance. At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old, which I have stored up for you, my beloved.

Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a very flame of the LORD.

My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are for you, Solomon; two hundred for those who tend its fruit.

Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken the LORD. 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.

"What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?," says the LORD. "I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.

My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.

When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

"Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD: "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

Your rulers are rebellious, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They do not judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

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.

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 Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

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.

Moreover the LORD 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;

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 midst of the land.

The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they do not regard the work of the LORD, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.

Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.

So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.

Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink;

Therefore the LORD'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 midst 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.

Then I said, "Lord, how long?" He answered, "Until cities are waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land becomes utterly waste,

And the LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remains when they are felled; so the holy seed is its stock."

Behold, I and the children whom God has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.

They will pass through it, greatly distressed and hungry; and it will happen that when they are hungry, they will worry, and curse by their king and by their God. They will turn their faces upward,

For those who lead this people lead them astray; and those who are led by them are destroyed.

Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts, the land is burnt up; and the people are the fuel for the fire. No one spares his brother.

For he says, "Aren't all of my officials kings?

My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest, and like one gathers eggs that are abandoned, have I gathered all the earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or that opened their mouth, or chirped."

For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.

Yes, the fir trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, "Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us."

They all will answer and ask you, "Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?"

Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.

How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn. How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low.

But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trodden under foot.

Howl, gate. Cry, city. You are melted away, Philistia, all of you; for smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.

For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more on Dimon, a lion on those of Moab who escape, and on the remnant of the land.

Let my outcasts dwell with you. As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortioner is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land.

We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogance, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing.

The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

At evening, behold, terror. Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.

The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, "I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?"

Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what the LORD of hosts has purposed concerning Egypt.

The princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Memphis are deceived. They have caused Egypt to go astray, who are the cornerstone of her tribes.