The two are better than the one, in that they have a good reward by their labour.

I have seen all the living, who are walking under the sun, with the second youth who doth stand in his place;

If oppression of the poor, and violent taking away of judgment and righteousness thou seest in a province, do not marvel at the matter, for a higher than the high is observing, and high ones are over them.

If a man doth beget a hundred, and live many years, and is great, because they are the days of his years, and his soul is not satisfied from the goodness, and also he hath not had a grave, I have said, 'Better than he is the untimely birth.'

For there are many things multiplying vanity; what advantage is to man?

And I am finding more bitter than death, the woman whose heart is nets and snares, her hands are bands; the good before God escapeth from her, but the sinner is captured by her.

And so I have seen the wicked buried, and they went in, even from the Holy Place they go, and they are forgotten in the city whether they had so done. This also is vanity.

There is a vanity that hath been done upon the earth, that there are righteous ones unto whom it is coming according to the work of the wicked, and there are wicked ones unto whom it is coming according to the work of the righteous. I have said that this also is vanity.

But all this I have laid unto my heart, so as to clear up the whole of this, that the righteous and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God, neither love nor hatred doth man know, the whole is before them.

For even man knoweth not his time; as fish that are taken hold of by an evil net, and as birds that are taken hold of by a snare, like these are the sons of man snared at an evil time, when it falleth upon them suddenly.

And I said, 'Better is wisdom than might, and the wisdom of the poor is despised, and his words are not heard.' --

The words of the wise in quiet are heard, More than the cry of a ruler over fools.

Words of the mouth of the wise are gracious, And the lips of a fool swallow him up.

For mirth they are making a feast, And wine maketh life joyful, And the silver answereth with all.

If the thick clouds are full of rain, On the earth they empty themselves; And if a tree doth fall in the south or to the north, The place where the tree falleth, there it is.

In the morning sow thy seed, And at even withdraw not thy hand, For thou knowest not which is right, this or that, Or whether both of them alike are good.

But, if man liveth many years, In all of them let him rejoice, And remember the days of darkness, For they are many! all that is coming is vanity.

And turn aside anger from thy heart, And cause evil to pass from thy flesh, For the childhood and the age are vanity!

And doors have been shut in the street. When the noise of the grinding is low, And one riseth at the voice of the bird, And all daughters of song are bowed down.

Also of that which is high they are afraid, And of the low places in the way, And the almond-tree is despised, And the grasshopper is become a burden, And want is increased, For man is going unto his home age-during, And the mourners have gone round through the street.

Words of the wise are as goads, and as fences planted by the masters of collections, they have been given by one shepherd.

Let him kiss me with kisses of his mouth, For better are thy loves than wine.

For fragrance are thy perfumes good. Perfume emptied out -- thy name, Therefore have virgins loved thee!

Lo, thou art fair, my friend, Lo, thou art fair, thine eyes are doves!

The beams of our houses are cedars, Our rafters are firs, I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys!

The watchmen have found me, (Who are going round about the city), 'Him whom my soul have loved saw ye?'

Lo, his couch, that is Solomon's, Sixty mighty ones are around it, Of the mighty of Israel,

Lo, thou art fair, my friend, lo, thou art fair, Thine eyes are doves behind thy veil, Thy hair as a row of the goats That have shone from mount Gilead,

Thy teeth as a row of the shorn ones That have come up from the washing, For all of them are forming twins, And a bereaved one is not among them.

As a thread of scarlet are thy lips, And thy speech is comely, As the work of the pomegranate is thy temple behind thy veil,

As the tower of David is thy neck, built for an armoury, The chief of the shields are hung on it, All shields of the mighty.

Thy two breasts are as two fawns, Twins of a roe, that are feeding among lilies.

Thy lips drop honey, O spouse, Honey and milk are under thy tongue, And the fragrance of thy garments Is as the fragrance of Lebanon.

His cheeks as a bed of the spice, towers of perfumes, His lips are lilies, dropping flowing myrrh,

Thy teeth as a row of the lambs, That have come up from the washing, Because all of them are forming twins, And a bereaved one is not among them.

Sixty are queens, and eighty concubines, And virgins without number.

As the chorus of 'Mahanaim.' How beautiful were thy feet with sandals, O daughter of Nadib. The turnings of thy sides are as ornaments, Work of the hands of an artificer.

Set me as a seal on thy heart, as a seal on thine arm, For strong as death is love, Sharp as Sheol is jealousy, Its burnings are burnings of fire, a flame of Jah!

Many waters are not able to quench the love, And floods do not wash it away. If one give all the wealth of his house for love, Treading down -- they tread upon it.

The companions are attending to thy voice, Cause me to hear. Flee, my beloved, and be like to a roe,

Wherefore are ye stricken any more? Ye do add apostasy! Every head is become diseased, and every heart is sick.

Your land is a desolation, your cities burnt with fire, Your ground, before you strangers are consuming it, And a desolation as overthrown by strangers!

Come, I pray you, and we reason, saith Jehovah, If your sins are as scarlet, as snow they shall be white, If they are red as crimson, as wool they shall be!

If ye are willing, and have hearkened, The good of the land ye consume,

And if ye refuse, and have rebelled, By the sword ye are consumed, For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken.

Thy princes are apostates, and companions of thieves, Every one loving a bribe, and pursuing rewards, The fatherless they judge not, And the plea of the widow cometh not to them.

And the destruction of transgressors and sinners is together, And those forsaking Jehovah are consumed.

For men are ashamed because of the oaks That ye have desired, And ye are confounded because of the gardens That ye have chosen.

For ye are as an oak whose leaf is fading, And as a garden that hath no water.

For Thou hast left Thy people, the house of Jacob. For they have been filled from the east, And are sorcerers like the Philistines, And with the children of strangers strike hands.

For stumbled hath Jerusalem, and Judah hath fallen, For their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, To provoke the eyes of His glory.

My people -- its exactors are sucklings, And women have ruled over it. My people -- thy eulogists are causing to err, And the way of thy paths swallowed up.

Therefore my people removed without knowledge, And its honourable ones are famished, And its multitude dried up of thirst.

Who are saying, 'Let Him hurry, Let Him hasten His work, that we may see, And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel Draw near and come, and we know.'

Whose arrows are sharp, and all its bows bent, Hoofs of its horses as flint have been reckoned, And its wheels as a hurricane!

Seraphs are standing above it: six wings hath each one; with two each covereth its face, and with two each covereth its feet, and with two each flieth.

And the posts of the thresholds are moved by the voice of him who is calling, and the house is full of smoke.

And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, And the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If ye do not give credence, Surely ye are not stedfast.'

And it hath come to pass, in that day, Every place where there are a thousand vines, At a thousand silverlings, Is for briers and for thorns.

And all the hills that with a mattock are kept in order, Thither cometh not the fear of brier and thorn, And it hath been for the sending forth of ox, And for the treading of sheep!'

Lo, I, and the children whom Jehovah hath given to me, Are for signs and for wonders in Israel, From Jehovah of Hosts, who is dwelling in Mount Zion.

The people who are walking in darkness Have seen a great light, Dwellers in a land of death-shade, Light hath shone upon them.

And the eulogists of this people are causing to err, And its eulogised ones are consumed.

Manasseh -- Ephraim, and Ephraim -- Manasseh, Together they are against Judah, With all this not turned back hath His anger. And still His hand is stretched out!

For he saith, 'Are not my princes altogether kings?

And the rest of the trees of his forest are few, And a youth doth write them.

Lo, the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, Is lopping a branch with violence, And the high of stature are cut down, And the lofty are become low,

And a wolf hath sojourned with a lamb, And a leopard with a kid doth lie down, And calf, and young lion, and fatling are together, And a little youth is leader over them.

Evil they do not, nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For full hath been the earth with the knowledge of Jehovah, As the waters are covering the sea.

And turned aside hath the envy of Ephraim, And the adversaries of Judah are cut off, Ephraim doth not envy Judah, And Judah doth not distress Ephraim.

A voice of a multitude in the mountains, A likeness of a numerous people, A voice of noise from the kingdoms of nations who are gathered, Jehovah of Hosts inspecting a host of battle!

They are coming in from a land afar off, From the end of the heavens, Jehovah and the instruments of His indignation, To destroy all the land.

And they have been troubled, Pains and pangs they take, As a travailing woman they are pained, A man at his friend they marvel, The appearance of flames -- their faces!

And their sucklings are dashed to pieces before their eyes, Spoiled are their houses, and their wives lain with.

And Aiim have responded in his forsaken habitations, And dragons in palaces of delight, And near to come is her time, And her days are not drawn out!

For, the waters of Nimrim are desolations, For, withered hath been the hay, Finished hath been the tender grass, A green thing there hath not been.

And it hath come to pass, As a wandering bird, a nest cast out, Are daughters of Moab, at fords of Arnon.

We have heard of the pride of Moab -- very proud, His pride, and his arrogance, and his wrath, Not right are his devices.

Therefore howl doth Moab for Moab, all of it doth howl, For the grape-cakes of Kir-Hareseth it meditateth, Surely they are smitten.

Forsaken are the cities of Aroer, For droves they are, and they have lain down, And there is none troubling.

And ceased hath the fortress from Ephraim, And the kingdom from Damascus, And the remnant of Aram are as the honour of the sons of Israel, The affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts!

In that day are the cities of his strength As the forsaken thing of the forest, And the branch that they have left, Because of the sons of Israel, It also hath been a desolation.

Woe to the multitude of many peoples, As the sounding of seas they sound; And to the wasting of nations, As the wasting of mighty waters they are wasted.

Nations as the wasting of many waters are wasted, And He hath pushed against it, And it hath fled afar off, And been pursued as chaff of hills before wind, And as a rolling thing before a hurricane.

They are left together to the ravenous fowl of the mountains, And to the beast of the earth, And summered on them hath the ravenous fowl, And every beast of the earth wintereth on them.

And its foundations have been smitten, All making wages are afflicted in soul.

Only, fools are the princes of Zoan, The counsel of the wise ones of the counsellors of Pharaoh hath become brutish. How say ye unto Pharaoh, 'A son of the wise am I, a son of kings of antiquity?'

Where are they now, thy wise ones? Yea, let them tell to thee, I pray thee, And they know what Jehovah of Hosts hath counselled against Egypt!

In that day there are five cities in the land of Egypt, Speaking the lip of Canaan, And swearing to Jehovah of Hosts, 'The city of destruction,' is said of one.

And the remnant of the number of bow-men, The mighty of the sons of Kedar are few, For Jehovah, God of Israel, hath spoken!'

Full of stirs -- a noisy city -- an exulting city, Thy pierced are not pierced of the sword, Nor dead in battle.

And thy coverer covering, wrapping round, Wrappeth thee round, O babbler, On a land broad of sides -- there thou diest, And there the chariots of thine honour Are the shame of the house of thy lord.

As at the report of Egypt they are pained, So at the report of Tyre.

Who hath counselled this against Tyre, The crowning one, whose traders are princes, Her merchants the honoured of earth?'

Therefore a curse hath consumed the land, And the inhabitants in it are become desolate, Therefore consumed have been inhabitants of the land, And few men have been left.

Fear, and a snare, and a gin, Are on thee, O inhabitant of the land.

And it hath come to pass, He who is fleeing from the noise of the fear Doth fall into the snare, And he who is coming up from the midst of the snare, Is captured by the gin, For windows on high have been opened, And shaken are foundations of the land.

And they have been gathered -- A gathering of bound ones in a pit, And shut up they have been in a prison, And after a multitude of days are inspected.

With my soul I desired Thee in the night, Also, with my spirit within me I seek Thee earnestly, For when Thy judgments are on the earth, The inhabitants of the world have learned righteousness.

O Jehovah, high is Thy hand -- they see not, They see the zeal of the people, and are ashamed, Also, the fire -- Thine adversaries, consumeth them.