I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; and God has done it, that men should fear before him.

Therefore I saw that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what will be after him?

Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one keep warm alone?

Whatever has been, its name was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he.

For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked?

That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out?

for the king's word is supreme. Who can say to him, "What are you doing?"

For he doesn't know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?

then I saw all the work of God, that man can't find out the work that is done under the sun, because however much a man labors to seek it out, yet he won't find it. Yes even though a wise man thinks he can comprehend it, he won't be able to find it.

A fool also multiplies words. Man doesn't know what will be; and that which will be after him, who can tell him?

Many waters can't quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned.

Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me; new moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can't bear with evil assemblies.

For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?"

Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold on me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can't hear. I so am dismayed that I can't see.

All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't, for it is sealed:"

and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't read."

They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach."

The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?

You will no longer see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that you can't comprehend, with a strange language that you can't understand.

How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

For Sheol can't praise you. Death can't celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth.

When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word.

Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, "That is true."

Yes, since the day was I am he; and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who can hinder it?"

You have bought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices; but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities.

They do not know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can't see; and their hearts, that they can't understand.

He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can't deliver his soul, nor say, "Isn't there a lie in my right hand?"

Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can't save.

They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands, from its place it shall not move: yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.

"Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

Why, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can't redeem? or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst.

His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they can't bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.

Yes, the dogs are greedy, they can never have enough; and these are shepherds who can't understand: they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can't rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt.

Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it can't save; neither his ear heavy, that it can't hear:

Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter.

"For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

"How can you say, 'I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals'? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind in her desire. When she is in heat, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they will find her.

"But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah.

"Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

My anguish, my anguish. I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can't hold my peace; because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

"Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places of it, if you can find a man, if there are any who does justly, who seeks truth; and I will pardon her.

"How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes' houses.

Do you not fear me?' says the LORD 'Won't you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can't pass it? And though its waves toss themselves, yet they can't prevail; though they roar, yet they can't pass over it.'

To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can't listen. Behold, the word of the LORD has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.

To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.'

Behold, you trust in lying words, that can't profit.

How can you say, "We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us?" But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.

"For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the livestock; both the birds of the sky and the animals are fled, they are gone."

They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and do not speak: they must be carried, because they can't go. Do not be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good."

"If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can't save? Yet you, LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not leave us."

Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren't you he, LORD our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things."

Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and bronze?

The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?

"'House of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter?' says the LORD. 'Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.'

and shall tell them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that can't be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury.

If I say, "I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name," then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I can't contain it.

'House of David, thus says the LORD, "Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him?' says the LORD. 'Do I not fill heaven and earth?' says the LORD.

Then the LORD said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" I said, "Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that can't be eaten, they are so bad."

As the bad figs, which can't be eaten, they are so bad, surely thus says the LORD, 'So will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem, who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt,

thus says the LORD of hosts; 'Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that can't be eaten, they are so bad.

Thus says the LORD: "If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done," says the LORD.

"Thus says the LORD: 'If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their season;

As the host of heaven can't be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured; so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites who minister to me.'"

Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, "I am shut up; I can't go into the house of the LORD:

Zedekiah the king said, "Behold, he is in your hand; for the king is not he who can do anything against you."

They shall cut down her forest, says the LORD, though it can't be searched; because they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable.

How can you be quiet, since the LORD has given you a command? Against Ashkelon, and against the seashore, there has he appointed it.'"

How can you say, "We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war?"

Of Damascus. "Hamath is confounded, and Arpad; for they have heard evil news, they are melted away: there is sorrow on the sea; it can't be quiet.

Behold, the enemy shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? And who will appoint me a time? And who is the shepherd who can stand before me?"

What shall I testify of you? What shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is great like the sea. Who can heal you?

He has walled me in, so I can't escape; he has made my chains heavy.

Who can speak a thing and have it come to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?

You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.

They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, so that men can't touch their garments.

They hunt our steps, so that we can't go in our streets. Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end has come.

The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits; of whom we said, "Under his shadow we can live among the nations."

not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can not understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.

"Say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Shall it prosper? Shall he not pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit, that it may wither; that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? And not by a strong arm or many people can it be raised from its roots.

Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken it, and will do it.

"You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: 'Thus you speak, saying, "Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?"'

Behold, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them.

He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I answered, "Lord GOD, you know."

But if you do not make known to me the dream, there is but one law for you; for you have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, until such time that things might change. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation."

The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, "There is not a man on the earth who can show the king's matter, because no king, lord, or ruler, has asked such a thing of any magician, or enchanter, or Chaldean.

It is a rare thing that the king requires, and there is no other who can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh."

Daniel answered before the king, and said, "The secret which the king has demanded is such that no wise men, enchanters, magicians, nor soothsayers, can show to the king;

All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing; and he does according to his will in the host of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or tell him, "What have you done?"

But I have heard of you, that you can give interpretations, and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing, and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom."

For how can this servant of my lord talk with my lord? As for me, no strength remains, and I am breathless."

Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can't be measured nor numbered; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'

Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she can't find her way.

Surely now they will say, "We have no king; for we do not fear the LORD; and the king, what can he do for us?"