If thou shalt see the oppression of the poor one, and the spoiling of judgment and justice in a province, thou shalt not wonder at the inclination: for the high one above the high one is watching, and the high ones over them.

For when those riches are lost in bad investments and he becomes the father of a son, then there is nothing in his hand [for the support of the child].

Lo! what, I myself, have seen - Better that it should be excellent to eat and to drink and to see blessedness, in all one's toil wherein one toileth under the sun, for the number of the days of his life, in that God hath given it him, for, that, is his portion:

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.

Though the stillborn child came into the world for no reason and departed into darkness, though its name is shrouded in darkness,

It has not seen the sun nor had any knowledge; yet it has more rest and is better off than he.

if he should live a thousand years twice, yet does not enjoy his prosperity. For both of them die!

The sight of the eyes is better, then that the soul should so depart away. Howbeit, this is also a vain thing and a disquietness of mind.

Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for [death is] the end of every person, and the living should take [it] to his heart.

Thou shalt not be hastened in thy spirit to be angry, for anger shall rest in the bosom of fools.

Thou shalt not say, Why was it the former days were good above these? for thou didst not ask from wisdom concerning this

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.

Do not be excessively righteous [like those given to self-conceit], and do not be overly wise (pretentious)—why should you bring yourself to ruin?

Do not be excessively or willfully wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?

It is good that you take hold of one thing (righteousness) and also not let go of the other (wisdom); for the one who fears and worships God [with awe-filled reverence] will come forth with both of them.

Also to all the words that shall be spoken thou shalt not give thy heart, that thou shalt not hear thy servant cursing thee.

Thou shalt not hasten going from his face: thou shalt not stand by the word of evil; for he shall do all that he will desire.

Then extolled I, gladness, in that there was nothing better for a man, under the sun, than to eat and to drink, and to be glad, - since, that, should tarry with him in his toil, for the days of his life which God had given him under the sun.

When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on the earth (even though one should never sleep day or night),

Then I considered all the work of God, that man could not find out the work that was done under the sun, inasmuch as man toileth in seeking and yet cannot find, - yea, even though the wise man should say he knoweth, yet can he not find it out.

For, the living, knew that they should die, - -but, the dead, knew not, anything, neither had they any longer a reward, because forgotten was their memory.

If the spirit of him ruling shall go up against thee, thou shalt not leave thy place; for quietness will put down great sins.

If the snake should bite before it is charmed, the snake charmer is in trouble.

Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!

Thou shalt not curse the king in thy consciousness, and in thy bed-chamber thou shalt not curse the rich for the bird of the heavens will bring the voice, and the possessor of wings shall announce the word.

Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.

Thou shalt give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou shalt not know what shall be evil upon the earth.

As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

In the morning sow thy seed, and at evening thou shalt not let thy hand rest: for thou shalt not know whether this shall be right, this or that, or if they two as one being good.

Yes, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. All that is to come will be futility.

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

SHELet him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! THEYFor better are thy caresses than wine:

Thou shalt not see me, I am black; the sun searched me: my mother's sons were angry with me; they set me to watch the vineyards; my vineyard I watched not for me.

Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?

If thou shalt not know for thyself, O fair one among women, come forth for thyself at the heels of the flock, and feed thy kids by the shepherds' tents.

With me, from Lebanon, O bride, with me, from Lebanon, shalt thou enter, - Thou shalt look round from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir, and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards.

I have put off my tunic, how should I put it on? I have washed my feet, how should I pollute them? --

(The Chorus)
“What is your beloved more than another beloved,
O most beautiful among women?
What is your beloved more than another beloved,
That you should so command us to take an oath?”

But my dove, my perfect one, is unique:
She is her mother’s only daughter;
She is the pure child of the one who bore her.
The maidens saw her and called her blessed,
The queens and the concubines also, and they praised her, saying,

Return, return, Shulammite, return, return, so we may look at you! Why should you look at the Shulammite, like you watch the dance of the two camps?

O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.

His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.

I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, ... Why should ye stir up, why awake my love, till he please?

so that many waters are not able to quench love, neither may the streams drown it. Yea, if a man would give all the good of his house for love, he should count it nothing.

{We have a little sister}, {and she does not yet have any breasts}. What should we do for our sister {on the day when she is betrothed}?

Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; this vineyard delivered he unto the keepers, that every one for the fruit thereof should give him a thousand pieces of silver.

My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: Thou, O Solomon, shalt have the thousand, And those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Take pleasure in well-doing; let your ways be upright, keep down the cruel, give a right decision for the child who has no father, see to the cause of the widow.

Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for profit and going after rewards; they do not give right decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let the cause of the widow come before them.

And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellers as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

And man will bow down, and a man will humble himself, and thou shalt not lift up to them.

Stop trusting in human beings, whose life's breath is in their nostrils. For why should they be given special consideration?

And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.

Yea, one shall take a friend of his own kindred by the bosom, and say, "Thou hast clothing, thou shalt be our head, for thou mayest keep us from this fall and peril."

He will protest on that day, saying,
“I will not be your healer,
For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”

As for my people, their ruler is acting like a child, and those who have authority over them are women. O my people, your guides are the cause of your wandering, turning your footsteps out of the right way.

And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

I will make it a wasteland.
It will not be pruned or weeded;
thorns and briers will grow up.
I will also give orders to the clouds
that rain should not fall on it.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying:

Who should I send?
Who will go for Us?

I said:

Here I am. Send me.

And he said, Go; and thou shalt say unto this people, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive.

Stupefy thou the heart of this people, And their ears, make thou heavy, And their eyes, overspread, - Lest they see with their eyes And with their ears, should hear, And their heart should discern and come back. And they be healed.

and thou shalt say unto him, Take heed and be quiet; fear not, and let not thy heart faint before these two ends of smoking firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.

Then he said, "Hear, house of David! [Is it] too little for you to make men weary, that you should also make my God weary?

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look! the virgin [is] with child and she is about to give birth [to] a son, and she shall call his name 'God with us.'

For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

And all the hills that were digged with the mattock, thou shalt not come thither for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.

And I went in to my wife, and she became with child, and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, Give him the name Maher-shalal-hash-baz,

For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,

You are to regard only the Lord of Hosts as holy.
Only He should be feared;
only He should be held in awe.

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?

Shalt thou multiply the people, and not increase the joy also? They shall rejoice before thee even as men make merry in harvest, and as men that have gotten the victory, when they deal the spoil.

For thou shalt break the yoke of the people's burden: the staff of his shoulder and the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

And they who should have led this people forward have been causing them to stray, - And, they who are led of them are destroyed,

Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.

For this, thus said the Lord Jehovah of armies, Thou my people dwelling in Zion shalt not fear from Assur: with the rod he shall strike thee and he will lift up his rod upon thee, in the way of Egypt.

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.

And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.

they shall stand in fear, carefulness and sorrow shall come upon them, and they shall have pain, as a woman that travaileth with child. One shall ever be abashed of another, and their faces shall burn like the flame.

And, bows, shall dash the young to pieces, - And on the fruit of the womb, will they have no pity, Over children, will their eye throw no shield.

That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, thou fair morning child! How hast thou gotten a fall, even to the ground; thou that didst subdue the people?

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.

Thou shalt not rejoice Philistia, all of thee, because the rod of him striking thee was broken: for from the root of the serpent shall come forth a viper, and his fruit burning flying.

Bring ye counsel, do judgment; place as the night thy shadow in the midst of noon; hide the driven out; thou shalt not betray the fugitive.

Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips:

In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

In that time spake Jehovah by the hand of Isaiah, son of Amos, saying, Go loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and thou shalt draw off the shoe from thy foot And he will do so, going naked and barefoot

Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.

And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.

He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country: there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord's house.

And I will thrust thee from thine office; and from thy station shalt thou be pulled down.

Be shamed, O Zidon: for the sea, the strong place of the sea has said, I have not been with child, or given birth; I have not taken care of young men, or kept watch over the growth of virgins