Being slow to get angry compares to great understanding as being quick-tempered compares to stupidity.

Since Sheol and Abaddon lie open in the LORD's presence, how much more the hearts of human beings!

Human beings long for grace, and it's better to be poor than a man of deceit.

A person's spirit is the lamp of the LORD; it searches throughout one's innermost being.

Blows that wound clean away evil; such beatings cleanse the innermost being.

My innermost being will be glad when your lips speak what is right.

Rescue those who are being led away to death, and save those who stumble toward slaughter.

Fearing any human being is a trap, but confiding in the LORD keeps anyone safe.

Surely I am beyond the senselessness of any man; I do not perceive things the way human beings do.

I dedicated myself to using wisdom for study and discovery of everything that is done under heaven. God uses terrible things so human beings will struggle with life.

I decided to indulge in wine, while still remaining committed to wisdom. I also tried to indulge in foolishness, just enough to determine whether it was good for human beings under heaven given the short time of their lives.

Then I told myself, "Whatever happens to the fool will happen also to me. Therefore what's the point in being so wise?" And I told myself that this also is pointless.

The only worthwhile thing for a human being is to eat, drink, and enjoy life's goodness that he finds in what he accomplishes. This, I observed, is also from the hand of God himself,

I have observed the burdens placed by God on human beings in order to perfect them.

"As for human beings," I told myself, "God puts them to the test, that they might see themselves as mere animals."

For what happens to people also happens to animals a single event happens to them: just as someone dies, so does the other. In fact, they all breathe the same way, so that a human being has no superiority over an animal. All of this is pointless.

Who knows whether the spirit of human beings ascends, and whether the spirit of animals descends to the earth?

So I commended the dead who had already died as being happier than the living who are still alive.

There exists another misfortune that I have observed on earth, and it is a heavy burden upon human beings:

I have discovered only this: God made human beings for righteousness, but they seek many alternatives."

Just as no human being has control over the wind to restrain it, so also no human being has control over the day of his death. Just as no one is discharged during war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

So I watched the wicked being entombed. They used to come in and out of the Holy Place, but now they are forgotten in the city, where they used to work. This, too, is pointless.

I saw all of it as the activity of God. Frankly, a human being cannot understand what happens on earth, because however hard a man works to discover it, he will not find out. Despite what he thinks he knows, he will not be able to figure it out.

In light of all of this, I committed myself to explain it this way: the righteous and the wise, along with everything they do, are in the hands of God. Furthermore, as to love and hate, no human being knows everything concerning them.

There is a tragedy that infects everything that happens on earth: a common event happens to everyone. In fact, the hearts of human beings are full of evil. Madness remains in their hearts while they live, and afterwards they join the dead.

In addition, no human being knows his time: Like fish captured in a cruel net, or as birds caught in a snare, so also are human beings caught by bad timing that surprises them.

If a serpent strikes despite being charmed, there's no point in being a snake charmer.

Moreover, besides being wise himself, the Teacher taught people what he had learned by listening, making inquiries, and composing many proverbs.

Your teeth are like a flock of sheep about to be sheared, who are coming up from being washed. All of them are twins, not one has lost her young.

Your teeth are like a flock of ewes coming up from being washed. All of them are twins, not one has lost her young.

"So mankind is humbled, each human being is brought low, and you won't forgive."

The haughty looks of mankind will be brought low, the lofty pride of human beings will be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted at that time.

"Stop trusting in human beings, whose life breath is in their nostrils, for what are they really worth?"

"Sing praises to the LORD, because he has acted gloriously, being made known in all the world.

Therefore my insides moan like a lyre for Moab, and my innermost being for Kir-hareseth.

Then the Lord said: "Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, worship of me has become merely like rules taught by human beings.

"Then Assyria will fall by a sword that is not from human beings only a sword not wielded by mortal beings will devour them. They will flee from the sword, and their young men will be put to forced labor.

I said, "I won't see the LORD in the land of the living; and I'll no longer observe human beings among the denizens of the grave.

See, the former things have taken place, and I'm announcing the new things before they spring into being I'm telling you about them."

"The Lord GOD has given me a learned tongue, so that I may know how to sustain the weary with words. And morning after morning he wakens, and he wakens my ear to listen like those who are being taught.

All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came into being," declares the LORD. "But this is the one to whom I will look favorably: to the one who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at my message.

"Whoever slaughters an ox is just like one who kills a human being; whoever sacrifices a lamb is just like one who breaks a dog's neck; whoever makes a grain offering is just like one who offers pig's blood; and whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense is just like one who blesses an idol. Yes, these have chosen their own ways, and they take delight in their contaminated actions.

I haven't run away from being your shepherd, and I haven't longed for the day of sickness. You know what comes out from my lips, it's open before you.

"This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Look, disaster is going from nation to nation, a great storm is being stirred up from the most distant parts of the earth.

For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, "plans for well-being, and not for calamity, in order to give you a future and a hope.

Lord, you have told me, "Buy the field for yourself with money and call in witnesses," even though the city is being given over to the Chaldeans.'"

"Now therefore," says the LORD God of Israel, "concerning this city about which you are saying, "It is being given into the control of the king of Babylon by sword, famine, and plague,'

Then the officials told the king, "Let this man be put to death because he's undermining the efforts of the soldiers who remain in this city and that of all the people by speaking words like these to them. Indeed, this man is not seeking the well-being of this people, but rather their harm."

This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had released him from Ramah, when he was bound in chains, along with all the exiles from Jerusalem and Judah who were being taken into exile in Babylon.

Just like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors," says the LORD, "no one will live there. No human being will reside in it.

"Hazor will become a dwelling place for jackals, a perpetual wasteland. No one will live there; no human being will reside in it."

Just as when God overthrew Sodom, Gomorrah, and their neighbors," declares the LORD, "so also no one will live there. No human being will reside in it.

Her cities will become an object of horror, a dry land and a desert, a land in which no one lives, and through which no human being passes.

He will endure being slapped in the face, bringing him public disgrace.

For he does not deliberately hurt or grieve human beings.

Why should anyone living complain, any mortal, about being punished for sin?

You drew near when I called out to you. You said, "Stop being afraid"

Deep inside it, the likenesses of four living beings were visible. Their appearances were similar to human forms,

Now, in the midst of the living beings there was something that appeared to glow like coals kindled by a fire, like torches that moved back and forth between the living beings. The fire was dazzling, and lightning flashed from the fire.

The living beings moved around, in appearance resembling lightning.

As I observed the living beings, I noticed one wheel on the earth beside each being that is, for the four of them.

Whenever the living beings moved, the wheels moved, too. Whenever the living beings rose from the earth, the wheels rose also.

There was spread out over the heads of the living beings what looked like a canopy, in outward appearance resembling ice,

There was the likeness of the appearance of a human being seated on the likeness of the throne high above. I noticed that from what appeared to look like his waist upward there was something that looked like metal that glowed as if it were immersed in fire. Below this there was something resembling fire, with a radiant light surrounding him.

"Now as for you, Son of Man, never be afraid of them or of anything they have to say, because being with them will be like settling down to live among briers, thorn bushes, and scorpions! Don't be afraid of anything they have to say, and don't be awed by their appearance, since they are a rebellious group.

As I watched, all of a sudden there was a hand being stretched out in my direction! And there was a scroll

being unrolled right in front of me! Written on both sides were lamentations, mourning, and cries of grief.

"Only then will I stop being angry my burning in anger. Then they'll know that I've spoken out in my arduous anger. Only then will my burning anger against them be exhausted.

The cherubim arose. These were the same beings that I had seen at the Chebar River.

These were the living beings that I had seen under the God of Israel on the bank of the Chebar River. I knew that they were cherubim.

This is what the Lord GOD says, "I'm sending four of my most destructive judgments military invasion, famine, wild animals, and pestilence into Jerusalem to destroy both human beings and livestock in it.

"That's how I'll make you stop your prostitution so you won't pay any prostitute's fees anymore. I'll stop being angry with you, and I'll cease being jealous. I'll be calm and not be indignant anymore.

"When you were being so arrogant, you never once mentioned your sister Sodom

"Yet you keep saying, "The LORD isn't being consistent with his standards.' Pay attention, you house of Israel: Is my behavior really inconsistent with my standards? Isn't it your behavior that isn't just?

Yet Israel's house keeps saying, "The LORD isn't being consistent with his standards.' Is it my behavior that's inconsistent with my standards? Is it not your behavior that's inconsistent with my standards?"

"Therefore, Israel, I'm going to judge you according to the behavior of each and every one of you," declares the Lord GOD. "So repent and turn from all your sins so that sin won't keep on being a stumbling block for you.

She raised one cub in particular, teaching that fierce lion to become a hunter-prowler to eat human beings.

He prowled around among the lions, became a strong, young lion, and learned to become a hunter-prowler to eat human beings.

"Son of Man, prophesy and say, "This is what the Lord GOD says: "A sword! A sword is being sharpened. It's also being polished.

It's being sharpened for slaughter, and being polished to gleam like lightning.' "We shouldn't be rejoicing, should we, while my Son's scepter, the sword, is despising every tree?

And now Son of Man, prophesy to the Ammonites that this is what the Lord GOD says to the Ammonites about their approaching humiliation: "A sword! A sword is being drawn for slaughter. It's polished to flash like lightning.

""I'm constantly being profaned among them. Her princes within her are like wolves tearing their prey apart. They shed blood, destroying souls, and make unjust gain.

therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: "I'm going to raise my clenched fist in Edom's direction and eliminate every single human being and animal from Edom! I'm going to turn everything into a wasteland, starting with Teman, and Dedan will fall by violence!

As a result, none of its watered trees will grow tall, their tops will never reach to the clouds, and they'll never grow so high again, because all of them have been appointed to death in the world beneath where human beings go, that is, down to the Pit.'"

"This is what the Lord GOD says: "Because some have been saying to you, "You mountains have been devouring human beings and leaving people childless,"

therefore you will no longer devour human beings or leave their nation childless,' declares the Lord GOD.

The desolate cities will be filled with flocks of human beings, just like Jerusalem used to be filled with flocks of sheep during the times of the appointed festivals. Then they will know that I am the LORD.'"

I'm going to shake the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the wild beasts, all the creatures that crawl on the earth, and every single human being who lives on the surface of the earth. Mountains will collapse, as will their mountain passages, and every wall will fall to the ground.

You kept on bringing in foreigners, those who were uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to profane my sanctuary by being inside my Temple, and by doing so you've emptied my covenant, all the while offering my food the fat and the blood in addition to all of the other loathsome things you've done.

Furthermore, what the king is asking is so difficult that no one can reveal it except the gods and they don't live with human beings."

"Look!" he told them, "I see four men walking untied and unharmed in the middle of the fire, and the appearance of the fourth resembles a divine being."

As these words were being spoken by the king, a voice came out of heaven: "King Nebuchadnezzar, this is declared to you:

"While I was thinking about the horns look another horn, this time a little one, grew up among them. Three of the first horns were yanked up by their roots right in front of it. Look! It had eyes like those of a human being and a mouth that boasted with audacious claims."

But suddenly someone who resembled a human being touched my lips, so addressing the one who was standing in front of me, I opened my mouth and said, "Sir, I'm overwhelmed with anguish by this vision. I have no strength left.

Despite this, the number of the people of Israel will be like ocean sand, which can neither be measured nor counted. And the time will come when instead of it being said, "You are not my people,' it will be said, "You are children of the living God.'

Then the LORD told me: "Go love your wife again, even though she is being loved by another and is committing adultery. Love her the same way the LORD loves the people of Israel, even though they look to other gods and love raisin cakes."

"Stop being afraid, land! Rejoice and be glad, because the LORD will do great things.

Stop being afraid, beasts of the field, because the desert pastures will bloom, the trees will bear their fruit, and the fig tree and vine will deliver their wealth.

The LORD replied, "Does being angry make you right?"

So why shouldn't I be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 human beings who do not know their right hand from their left, as well as a lot of livestock?