For then you will have a future,
and your hope will never fade.

Let your father and mother have joy,
and let her who gave birth to you rejoice.

realize that wisdom is the same for you.
If you find it, you will have a future,
and your hope will never fade.

For the evil have no future;
the lamp of the wicked will be put out.

The one who works his land
will have plenty of food,
but whoever chases fantasies
will have his fill of poverty.

A faithful man will have many blessings,
but one in a hurry to get rich
will not go unpunished.

The poor and the oppressor have this in common:
the Lord gives light to the eyes of both.

I have not gained wisdom,
and I have no knowledge of the Holy One.

Otherwise, I might have too much
and deny You, saying, “Who is the Lord?”
or I might have nothing and steal,
profaning the name of my God.

locusts have no king,
yet all of them march in ranks;

If you have been foolish by exalting yourself
or if you’ve been scheming,
put your hand over your mouth.

Speak up for those who have no voice,
for the justice of all who are dispossessed.

I, the Teacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

I said to myself, “Look, I have amassed wisdom far beyond all those who were over Jerusalem before me, and my mind has thoroughly grasped wisdom and knowledge.”

So I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will also happen to me. Why then have I been overly wise?” And I said to myself that this is also futile.

There is nothing better for man than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand,

I have seen the task that God has given people to keep them occupied.

For the fate of people and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath. People have no advantage over animals since everything is futile.

I have seen that there is nothing better than for a person to enjoy his activities because that is his reward. For who can enable him to see what will happen after he dies?

Again, I observed all the acts of oppression being done under the sun. Look at the tears of those who are oppressed; they have no one to comfort them. Power is with those who oppress them; they have no one to comfort them.

So I admired the dead, who have already died, more than the living, who are still alive.

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

There is a sickening tragedy I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.

Here is what I have seen to be good: it is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward.

Here is a tragedy I have observed under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity:

A man may father a hundred children and live many years. No matter how long he lives, if he is not satisfied by good things and does not even have a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

What advantage then does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage is there for the poor person who knows how to conduct himself before others?

In my futile life I have seen everything: there is a righteous man who perishes in spite of his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in spite of his evil.

for you know that many times you yourself have cursed others.

I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me.

“Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation,

which my soul continually searches for but does not find: among a thousand people I have found one true man, but among all these I have not found a true woman.

Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”

All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one man has authority over another to his harm.

Their love, their hate, and their envy have already disappeared, and there is no longer a portion for them in all that is done under the sun.

I have observed that this also is wisdom under the sun, and it is significant to me:

There is an evil I have seen under the sun, an error proceeding from the presence of the ruler:

I have seen slaves on horses,
but princes walking on the ground like slaves.

So remember your Creator in the days of your youth:

Before the days of adversity come,
and the years approach when you will say,
“I have no delight in them”;

Do not stare at me because I am dark,
for the sun has gazed on me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
they made me a keeper of the vineyards.
I have not kept my own vineyard.

The guards who go about the city found me.
I asked them, “Have you seen the one I love?”

You have captured my heart, my sister, my bride.
You have captured my heart with one glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.

M I have come to my garden—my sister, my bride.
I gather my myrrh with my spices.
I eat my honeycomb with my honey.
I drink my wine with my milk.

N Eat, friends!
Drink, be intoxicated with love!

W I have taken off my clothing.
How can I put it back on?
I have washed my feet.
How can I get them dirty?

The mandrakes give off a fragrance,
and at our doors is every delicacy—
new as well as old.
I have treasured them up for you, my love.

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W I am a wall
and my breasts like towers.
So in his eyes I have become
like one who finds peace.

I have my own vineyard.
The 1,000 are for you, Solomon,
but 200 for those who guard its fruits.

Listen, heavens, and pay attention, earth,
for the Lord has spoken:
“I have raised children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against Me.

Oh sinful nation,
people weighed down with iniquity,
brood of evildoers,
depraved children!
They have abandoned the Lord;
they have despised the Holy One of Israel;
they have turned their backs on Him.

“What are all your sacrifices to Me?”
asks the Lord.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings and rams
and the fat of well-fed cattle;
I have no desire for the blood of bulls,
lambs, or male goats.

I hate your New Moons and prescribed festivals.
They have become a burden to Me;
I am tired of putting up with them.

Indeed, they will be ashamed of the sacred trees
you desired,
and you will be embarrassed because of the gardens
you have chosen.

For You have abandoned Your people,
the house of Jacob,
because they are full of divination from the East
and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines.
They are in league with foreigners.

Their land is full of idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their fingers have made.

A man will even seize his brother
in his father’s house, saying:
“You have a cloak—you be our leader!
This heap of rubble will be under your control.”

On that day he will cry out, saying:
“I’m not a healer.
I don’t even have food or clothing in my house.
Don’t make me the leader of the people!”

For Jerusalem has stumbled
and Judah has fallen
because they have spoken and acted against the Lord,
defying His glorious presence.

The look on their faces testifies against them,
and like Sodom, they flaunt their sin.
They do not conceal it.
Woe to them,
for they have brought evil on themselves.

Woe to the wicked—it will go badly for them,
for what they have done will be done to them.

The Lord brings this charge
against the elders and leaders of His people:
“You have devastated the vineyard.
The plunder from the poor is in your houses.

What more could I have done for My vineyard
than I did?
Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes,
did it yield worthless grapes?

At their feasts they have lyre, harp,
tambourine, flute, and wine.
They do not perceive the Lord’s actions,
and they do not see the work of His hands.

Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes straw
and as dry grass shrivels in the flame,
so their roots will become like something rotten
and their blossoms will blow away like dust,
for they have rejected
the instruction of the Lord of Hosts,
and they have despised
the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Then I said:

Woe is me for I am ruined
because I am a man of unclean lips
and live among a people of unclean lips,
and because my eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of Hosts.

Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.

I have appointed trustworthy witnesses—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.”

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
a light has dawned
on those living in the land of darkness.

You have enlarged the nation
and increased its joy.
The people have rejoiced before You
as they rejoice at harvest time
and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.

For You have shattered their oppressive yoke
and the rod on their shoulders,
the staff of their oppressor,
just as You did on the day of Midian.

“The bricks have fallen,
but we will rebuild with cut stones;
the sycamores have been cut down,
but we will replace them with cedars.”

Aram from the east and Philistia from the west
have consumed Israel with open mouths.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.

They carve meat on the right,
but they are still hungry;
they have eaten on the left,
but they are still not satisfied.
Each one eats the flesh of his own arm.

For he said:

I have done this by my own strength
and wisdom, for I am clever.
I abolished the borders of nations
and plundered their treasures;
like a mighty warrior, I subjugated the inhabitants.

They crossed over at the ford, saying,
“We will spend the night at Geba.”
The people of Ramah are trembling;
those at Gibeah of Saul have fled.

Madmenah has fled.
The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.

On that day you will say:
“I will praise You, Lord,
although You were angry with me.
Your anger has turned away,
and You have had compassion on me.

I have commanded My chosen ones;
I have also called My warriors,
who exult in My triumph,
to execute My wrath.

Look! I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who cannot be bought off with silver
and who have no desire for gold.

Their bows will cut young men to pieces.
They will have no compassion on little ones;
they will not look with pity on children.

For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will choose Israel again. He will settle them on their own land. The foreigner will join them and be united with the house of Jacob.

Even the cypresses and the cedars of Lebanon
rejoice over you:
“Since you have been laid low,
no woodcutter has come against us.”

They all respond to you, saying:
“You too have become as weak as we are;
you have become like us!

Shining morning star,
how you have fallen from the heavens!
You destroyer of nations,
you have been cut down to the ground.

The Lord of Hosts has sworn:

As I have purposed, so it will be;
as I have planned it, so it will happen.

Let my refugees stay with you;
be a refuge for Moab from the aggressor.

When the oppressor has gone,
destruction has ended,
and marauders have vanished from the land.

We have heard of Moab’s pride—
how very proud he is—
his haughtiness, his pride, his arrogance,
and his empty boasting.

For Heshbon’s terraced vineyards
and the grapevines of Sibmah have withered.
The rulers of the nations
have trampled its choice vines
that reached as far as Jazer
and spread to the desert.
Their shoots spread out
and reached the Dead Sea.

So I join with Jazer
to weep for the vines of Sibmah;
I drench Heshbon and Elealeh with my tears.
Triumphant shouts have fallen silent
over your summer fruit and your harvest.

Joy and rejoicing have been removed from the orchard;
no one is singing or shouting for joy in the vineyards.
No one tramples grapes in the winepresses.
I have put an end to the shouting.

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
and you have failed to remember
the rock of your strength;
therefore you will plant beautiful plants
and set out cuttings from exotic vines.

The princes of Zoan have been fools;
the princes of Memphis are deceived.
Her tribal chieftains have led Egypt astray.

The Lord has mixed within her a spirit of confusion.
The leaders have made Egypt stagger in all she does,
as a drunkard staggers in his vomit.

Look, riders come—
horsemen in pairs.”
And he answered, saying,
“Babylon has fallen, has fallen.
All the images of her gods
have been shattered on the ground.”

My people who have been crushed
on the threshing floor,
I have declared to you
what I have heard from the Lord of Hosts,
the God of Israel.

For they have fled from swords,
from the drawn sword,
from the bow that is strung,
and from the stress of battle.

An oracle against the Valley of Vision:

What’s the matter with you?
Why have all of you gone up to the rooftops?

All your rulers have fled together,
captured without a bow.
All your fugitives were captured together;
they had fled far away.

An oracle against Tyre:

Wail, ships of Tarshish,
for your haven has been destroyed.
Word has reached them from the land of Cyprus.

Mourn, inhabitants of the coastland,
you merchants of Sidon;
your agents have crossed the sea