Because that they have hated knowledge, And the fear of Jehovah have not chosen.

They have not consented to my counsel, They have despised all my reproof,

And they eat of the fruit of their way, And from their own counsels they are filled.

Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in frowardness of the wicked,

Whose paths are crooked, Yea, they are perverted in their ways.

None going in unto her turn back, Nor do they reach the paths of life.

For length of days and years, Life and peace they do add to thee.

And they are life to thy soul, and grace to thy neck.

For they sleep not if they do not evil, And their sleep hath been taken violently away, If they cause not some to stumble.

For they have eaten bread of wickedness, And wine of violence they drink.

The way of the wicked is as darkness, They have not known at what they stumble.

For life they are to those finding them, And to all their flesh healing.

They do not despise the thief, When he stealeth to fill his soul when he is hungry,

And now, ye sons, hearken to me, Yea, happy are they who keep my ways.

Overthrow the wicked, and they are not, And the house of the righteous standeth.

Do not they err who are devising evil? And kindness and truth are to those devising good,

The words of a tale-bearer are as self-inflicted wounds, And they have gone down to the inner parts of the heart.

All the brethren of the poor have hated him, Surely also his friends have been far from him, He is pursuing words -- they are not!

The spoil of the wicked catcheth them, Because they have refused to do judgment.

For they are pleasant when thou dost keep them in thy heart, They are prepared together for thy lips.

They smote me, I have not been sick, They beat me, I have not known. When I awake -- I seek it yet again!'

Whoso is devising to do evil, Him they call a master of wicked thoughts.

The words of a tale-bearer are as self-inflicted wounds, And they have gone down to the inner parts of the heart.

A stone is heavy, and the sand is heavy, And the anger of a fool Is heavier than they both.

The prudent hath seen the evil, he is hidden, The simple have passed on, they are punished.

Four are little ones of earth, And they are made wiser than the wise:

The ants are a people not strong, And they prepare in summer their food,

Conies are a people not strong, And they place in a rock their house,

All the streams are going unto the sea, and the sea is not full; unto a place whither the streams are going, thither they are turning back to go.

I have sought in my heart to draw out with wine my appetite, (and my heart leading in wisdom), and to take hold on folly till that I see where is this -- the good to the sons of man of that which they do under the heavens, the number of the days of their lives.

And I turned to see wisdom, and madness, and folly, but what is the man who cometh after the king? that which is already -- they have done it!

I have known that all that God doth is to the age, to it nothing is to be added, and from it nothing is to be withdrawn; and God hath wrought that they do fear before Him.

I said in my heart concerning the matter of the sons of man that God might cleanse them, so as to see that they themselves are beasts.

And I have turned, and I see all the oppressions that are done under the sun, and lo, the tear of the oppressed, and they have no comforter; and at the hand of their oppressors is power, and they have no comforter.

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

For if they fall, the one raiseth up his companion, but woe to the one who falleth and there is not a second to raise him up!

Also, if two lie down, then they have heat, but how hath one heat?

Keep thy feet when thou goest unto a house of God, and draw near to hear rather than to give of fools the sacrifice, for they do not know they do evil.

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.'

Also to all the words that they speak give not thy heart, that thou hear not thy servant reviling thee.

See, this alone I have found, that God made man upright, and they -- they have sought out many devices.

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.

For the living know that they die, and the dead know not anything, and there is no more to them a reward, for their remembrance hath been forgotten.

Their love also, their hatred also, their envy also, hath already perished, and they have no more a portion to the age in all that hath been done under the sun.

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.

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.

In the day that keepers of the house tremble, And men of strength have bowed themselves, And grinders have ceased, because they have become few. And those looking out at the windows have become dim,

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.

Draw me: after thee we run, The king hath brought me into his inner chambers, We do joy and rejoice in thee, We mention thy loves more than wine, Uprightly they have loved thee!

Fear me not, because I am very dark, Because the sun hath scorched me, The sons of my mother were angry with me, They made me keeper of the vineyards, My vineyard -- my own -- I have not kept.

Turn round thine eyes from before me, Because they have made me proud. Thy hair is as a row of the goats, That have shone from Gilead,

One is my dove, my perfect one, One she is of her mother, The choice one she is of her that bare her, Daughters saw, and pronounce her happy, Queens and concubines, and they praise her.

Who doth make thee as a brother to me, Sucking the breasts of my mother? I find thee without, I kiss thee, Yea, they do not despise me,

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.

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, For Jehovah hath spoken: Sons I have nourished and brought up, And they -- they transgressed against Me.

Ah, sinning nation, a people heavy with iniquity, A seed of evil doers, sons -- corrupters! They have forsaken Jehovah, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have gone away backward.

From the sole of the foot -- unto the head, There is no soundness in it, Wound, and bruise, and fresh smiting! They have not been closed nor bound, Nor have they softened with ointment.

Your new moons and your set seasons hath My soul hated, They have been upon me for a burden, I have been weary of bearing.

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!

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 He hath judged between the nations, And hath given a decision to many peoples, And they have beat their swords to ploughshares, And their spears to pruning-hooks, Nation doth not lift up sword unto nation, Nor do they learn any more -- war.

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.

And the idols -- they completely pass away.

In that day doth man cast his idols of silver, And his idols of gold, That they have made for him to worship, To moles, and to bats,

The appearance of their faces witnessed against them, And their sin, as Sodom, they declared, They have not hidden! Woe to their soul, For they have done to themselves evil.

Say ye to the righteous, that it is good, Because the fruit of their doings they eat.

Because that daughters of Zion have been haughty, And they walk stretching out the neck, And deceiving with the eyes, Walking and mincing they go, And with their feet they make a tinkling,

Woe to those joining house to house, Field to field they bring near, till there is no place, And ye have been settled by yourselves In the midst of the land!

Woe to those rising early in the morning, Strong drink they pursue! Tarrying in twilight, wine inflameth them!

And harp, and psaltery, tabret, and pipe, And wine, have been their banquets, And the work of Jehovah they behold not, Yea, the work of His hands they have not seen.

Declaring righteous the wicked for a bribe, And the righteousness of the righteous They turn aside from him.

Therefore, as a tongue of fire devoureth stubble, And flaming hay falleth, Their root is as muck, And their flower as dust goeth up. Because they have rejected the law of Jehovah of Hosts, And the saying of the Holy One of Israel despised.

And they have come, and rested all of them in the desolate valleys, And in holes of the rocks, and on all the thorns, And on all the commendable things.

And when they say unto you, 'Seek unto those having familiar spirits, And unto wizards, who chatter and mutter, Doth not a people seek unto its God? -- For the living unto the dead!

Thou hast multiplied the nation, Thou hast made great its joy, They have joyed before Thee as the joy in harvest, As men rejoice in their apportioning spoil.

Aram from before, and Philistia from behind, And they devour Israel with the whole mouth. With all this not turned back hath His anger, And still His hand is stretched out.

And the people hath not turned back unto Him who is smiting it, And Jehovah of Hosts they have not sought.

For burned as a fire hath wickedness, Brier and thorn it devoureth, And it kindleth in thickets of the forest, And they lift themselves up, an exaltation of smoke!

And cutteth down on the right, and hath been hungry, And he devoureth on the left, And they have not been satisfied, Each the flesh of his own arm they devour.

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!

To turn aside from judgment the poor, And to take violently away the judgment Of the afflicted of My people, That widows may be their prey, That the fatherless they may spoil.

Without Me it hath bowed down In the place of a bound one, And in the place of the slain they fall. With all this not turned back hath His anger, And still His hand is stretched out.

They have gone over the passage, Geba they have made a lodging place, Trembled hath Rama, Gibeah of Saul fled.

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 they have flown on the shoulder of the Philistines westward, Together they spoil the sons of the east, Edom and Moab sending forth their hand, And sons of Ammon obeying them.

'On a high mountain lift ye up an ensign, Raise the voice to them, wave the hand, And they go in to the openings of nobles.

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 it hath been, as a roe driven away, And as a flock that hath no gatherer, Each unto his people -- they turn, And each unto his land -- they flee.

Lo, I am stirring up against them the Medes, Who silver esteem not, And gold -- they delight not in it.

And bows dash young men to pieces, And the fruit of the womb they pity not, On sons their eye hath no pity.

Because Jehovah loveth Jacob, And hath fixed again on Israel, And given them rest on their own land, And joined hath been the sojourner to them, And they have been admitted to the house of Jacob.

And peoples have taken them, And have brought them in unto their place, And the house of Israel have inherited them, On the land of Jehovah, For men-servants and for maid-servants, And they have been captors of their captors, And have ruled over their exactors.

At rest -- quiet hath been all the earth, They have broken forth into singing.

Thy beholders look to thee, to thee they attend, Is this the man causing the earth to tremble, Shaking kingdoms?

Prepare ye for his sons slaughter; Because of the iniquity of their fathers, They rise not, nor have possessed the land, Nor filled the face of the world with cities.

In its out-places they girded on sackcloth, On its pinnacles, and in its broad places, Every one howleth -- going down with weeping.

My heart is toward Moab, Cry do her fugitives unto Zoar, a heifer of the third year, For -- the ascent of Luhith -- With weeping he goeth up in it, For, in the way of Horonaim, A cry of destruction they wake up.