A man who loves wisdom will make his parents glad, but the friend of prostitutes will squander his wealth.

By justice a king gives stability [to] a land, but a man of bribes will ruin it.

In transgression, an evil man [is] a snare, but [the] righteous will sing and rejoice.

[The] righteous knows [the] case of the poor, but [the] wicked does not understand knowledge.

Men of scoffing set a city aflame, but the wise turn away wrath.

[If] a wise man goes to court with a foolish man, then there is rankling and ridicule, but there is no relief.

A fool gives all his breath, but [the] wise holds back in quiet.

As for a rod and reproof, they will give wisdom, but a neglected child is disgraced [by] his mother.

With the increase of the wicked, transgression will increase, but the righteous will look on his downfall.

When there is no prophecy, the people cast off restraint, but as for he who guards instruction, happiness [is] his.

By words, a servant is not disciplined, for he will understand, but there is no giving heed.

Being a partner with a thief is hating one's life; a curse he will hear, but not disclose.

The fear of a person will lay a snare, but he who trusts in Yahweh will be secure.

Many are those who seek the {favor} of a ruler, but from Yahweh {one obtains justice}.

A man of injustice is an abomination to the righteous, but the {upright} is an abomination to the wicked.

[There is] a generation [that is] pure in its own eyes, but from its filthiness it will not be cleansed.

a mighty lion among the beasts, but he will not turn back from {any face};

If you have been foolish by exalting yourself, and if you have devised evil, [put your] hand to [your] mouth.

She does him good, but not harm all the days of her life.

"Many daughters have done excellence, but {you surpass} all of them."

Charm [is] deceit and beauty [is] vain; [but] a woman who fears Yahweh shall be praised.

A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth stands forever.

All the streams flow to the sea, but the sea is never full; to the place where the streams flow, there they continue to flow.

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

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

{The wise man can see where he is walking}, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also realized that both of them suffer the same fate.

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!

He has made everything suitable in its time. He also has put {the past} in their hearts, yet no one can grasp what God does from the beginning to the end.

But better [off] than both of them is the one who has not yet been born and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

For if one falls, his companion may help him up. But pity the one who falls and there is {no one} to help him up.

Also if two lie together, {they can keep each other warm}. But how can one person be warm?

A poor but wise youth [is] better than an old but foolish king who no longer knows {how to receive advice}.

The sleep of the laborer [is] pleasant, whether he eats little or much, but the wealth of the rich man does not allow him to rest.

That wealth was lost in a bad venture. Although he has borne a child, {he has nothing to leave to him}.

The heart of the wise [is] in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools [is] in the house of mirth.

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

{For wisdom offers protection like money offers protection}. But knowledge [has] an advantage--wisdom restores life to its possessor.

In the day of prosperity, rejoice! But in the day of adversity, consider! For God made one in place of another so that mortals cannot find out what will happen {in the future}.

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

I myself found [that] more bitter than death [is] the woman who [is] a trap, whose heart [is] a snare, and whose hands [are] bonds. The one who pleases God escapes from her, but the sinner is caught by her.

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

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!

But it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not prolong [their] days, like the shadow; because there is no fearing {God's presence}.

For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything. They no longer have a reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.

Wisdom [is] better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

Dead flies cause a bad smell [and] ruin the ointment of the perfumer. So also a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

The heart of the wise [inclines] to his right, but the heart of the fool [inclines] to his left.

The fool is set in many high places, but the rich sit in lowly places.

Whoever digs a pit will fall into it. Whoever breaks through a wall, a snake will bite him.

If the ax is blunt but one does not sharpen its edge, {he must exert more effort}, but the advantage of wisdom [is] it brings success.

The wise man [wins] favor by the words of his mouth, but the fool is devoured by his own lips.

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth! Follow the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes-- but know that God will bring you into judgment for all these things.

Banish anxiety from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and vigor [are] vanity.

I [am] black but beautiful, {O maidens of Jerusalem}, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

Do not gaze at me because I am black, because the sun has stared [at] me. The sons of my mother were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, [but] my own "vineyard" I did not keep.

On my bed in the night, I sought him whom my {heart} loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.

Now I will arise, and I will go about in the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my {heart} loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.

I [was] asleep but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved knocking! "Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one! For my head is full of dew, {my hair drenched from the moist night air}."

I have taken off my tunic, {must I put it on}? I have bathed my feet, {must I soil them}?

I opened myself to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone; my heart sank when he turned away. I sought him, but I did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me.

The sentinels making rounds in the city found me; they beat me, they wounded me; they took my cloak away from me-- {those sentinels on the walls}!

My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the garden bed of the spice, to pasture his flock and to gather lilies in the garden.

If she [is] a wall, {we will adorn her with a turret of silver}; but if she [is] a door, we will barricade her with boards of cedar.

{Solomon had a vineyard} at Baal-hamon; {he entrusted his vineyard to the keepers}; {people paid a thousand silver [pieces] for its fruit}.

Hear, heavens, and listen, earth, for Yahweh has spoken: "I reared children and I brought [them] up, but they rebelled against me.

But if you refuse and you rebel, you shall be devoured [by the] sword. For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken."

How has a faithful city become like a whore? Full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

But [the] destruction [of] rebels and sinners [shall be] together, and those who forsake Yahweh will perish.

He shall judge between the nations and he shall arbitrate for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. A nation shall not lift up a sword against a nation, and they shall not learn war again.

Woe to the wicked! [It is] bad! For what is done [by] his hands will be done to him.

And he dug it and cleared it of stones, and he planted it [with] choice vines, and he built a watchtower in the middle of it, and he even hewed out a wine vat in it, and he waited for [it] to yield grapes-- but it yielded wild grapes.

For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts [is] the house of Israel, and the man of Judah [is] the plantation of his delight. [And] he waited for justice, but look! Bloodshed! For righteousness, but look! A cry of distress!

And [there] will be lyre and harp, tambourine and flute, and wine [at] their feasts, but they do not look at the deeds of Yahweh, and they do not see the work of his hands.

But Yahweh of hosts is exalted by justice, and the holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.

Ah! Those who call evil good and good evil, those who put darkness for light and light for darkness, those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

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.

But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put Yahweh to the test."

{Make a plan}, but it will be frustrated! Speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us!

or look to [the] earth. But look! Distress and darkness, [the] gloom of affliction! And [it will be] thrust [into] darkness!

{But there will be no gloom for those who were in distress}. In former times he treated [the] land of Zebulun and Naphtali with contempt, but in the future he will honor the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee [of] the nations.

For every boot {that marches and shakes the earth} and garment rolled in blood {will} be for burning--fire fuel.

"[The] bricks have fallen, but we will build [with] dressed stone. [The] sycamore-fig trees were felled, but we will replace [them with] cedars."

They devoured on [the] right but [still] were hungry and devoured on [the] left but they were not satisfied. Each one devoured the flesh of his arm,

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: 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.

But he shall judge [the] poor with righteousness, and he shall decide for [the] needy of [the] earth with rectitude. And he shall strike [the] earth with the rod of his mouth, and he shall kill [the] wicked person with the breath of his lips.

And {an infant} shall play over a serpent's hole, and {a toddler} shall put his hand on a viper's hole.

But they shall {swoop} upon [the] Philistine shoulder, {westward}. Together they shall plunder [the] sons of [the] east. Edom and Moab {will be under their command}, and the sons of Ammon [will be] their subjugated people.

And I will punish [the] world [for its] evil and [the] wicked [for] their iniquity. And I will put an end to [the] pride of [the] arrogant, and I will bring [the] haughtiness of tyrants low.

But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full [of] howling creatures, and the daughters of ostriches will live there, and goats will dance there.

But Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and he will again choose Israel and set them on their land, and the immigrant will join himself to them, and they will attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

Your pride is brought down [to] Sheol, [and] the sound of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you like a bed, and your covering is worms.

But you are brought down to Sheol, to [the] depths of [the] pit.

But [as for] you, you are thrown away from your grave, like an abhorrent shoot, clothed with [the] slain, those pierced [by the] sword, those who go down to [the] stones of [the] pit, like a corpse that is trodden down.

And [the] firstborn of [the] poor will graze, and [the] needy will lie down in security; but I will cause your root to die in famine, and it will kill your remnant.

For the waters of Dimon are full [of] blood; but I will place added things upon Dimon: a lion for the survivors of Moab and for [the] remnant of [the] land.

And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful land, and in the vineyards no one exults, no one shouts for joy; no treader treads wine in the presses; I have put to an end to [the] jubilant shout.

But now Yahweh speaks, saying, "In three years, like [the] years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will become contemptible, with all of the great multitude, and [the] remnant [will be] a few, small, not strong.

[The] nations roar like [the] roar of many waters, but he will rebuke him, and he will flee far away. And they are chased like chaff of [the] mountains before [the] wind and like tumbleweed before [the] storm.

A hard revelation is told to me; the treacherous deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; lay siege, Media! I put an end to all of her sighing.