{Better to be content with what your eyes see than for your soul to constantly crave more}. This also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

Whatever is--it was already determined, {what will be--it has already been decided}. As for man, he cannot argue against what is more powerful than him.

For who knows what [is] good for a man in his life during the few days of his fleeting life, which are fleeting as a shadow? For who can tell anyone what will happen {in the future} under the sun?

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.

Sorrow [is] better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made good.

Better to listen to [the] rebuke of [the] wise than for a man to listen to [the] song of fools.

Do not be quick in your spirit to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.

Do not say, "Why were the former days better than these?" For [it is] not from wisdom [that] you ask this.

{For wisdom offers protection like money offers protection}. But knowledge [has] an advantage--wisdom restores life to its possessor.

Consider the work of God. For who is able to make straight what he made crooked?

In the day of prosperity, rejoice! But in the day of adversity, consider! For God made one in place of another so that mortals cannot find out what will happen {in the future}.

[It is] good to take hold of the one and also must not let go of the other; for whoever fears God will hold both of them secure.

For your heart knows that you also have cursed others many times.

{Whatever is--it is far beyond comprehension}. Who can discover it?

Do not be terrified of his presence! Go at once and do not delay when a matter [is] unpleasant, for he can do anything that he desires.

For there is a [proper] time and right [procedure] for every matter, even though the trouble of man [weighs] heavy upon him.

Although the sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I also know that it will be good for those who fear God--because they fear {his presence}.

So I recommend enjoyment. For there [is] nothing better for man under the sun than to eat and to drink and to rejoice. This will accompany him in his toil the days of his life that God gives to him under the sun.

The same fate [comes] to everyone: to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the wicked, to the clean and to the unclean, to those who sacrifice and to those who do not sacrifice. As [with] the good [man], so also to the sinner; [as with] those who swear an oath, so [also] those who fear oaths.

For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything. They no longer have a reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.

Go--eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart! For God already has approved your deeds.

Whatever your hand finds to do--do [it] with [all] your might; for in Sheol--where you are going--no one works, plans, knows, or thinks about anything.

I looked again and saw under the sun that the race [does] not [belong] to the swift, the battle [does] not [belong] to the mighty, food [does] not [belong] to the wise, wealth [does] not [belong] to the intelligent, and success [does] not [belong] to the skillful, for time and chance befalls all of them.

For man does not know his time. Just as fish are caught in a cruel net and like birds who are seized in a snare, so also {humans} are ensnared at a cruel time when it falls suddenly upon them.

If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post, for calmness can undo great offenses.

The fool {talks too much}, for no one knows what will be. Who can tell anyone what will happen {in the future}?

{Feasts are held for celebration}, wine cheers the living, and money answers everything.

Do not curse the king even in your thoughts, and do not curse the rich even in your own bedroom, for a bird of the sky may carry your voice; a winged messenger may repeat your words.

Send out your bread on the water, for in many days you will find it.

Divide your share in seven or in eight, for you do not know what disaster will happen on the earth.

Sow your seed in the morning, and do not let your hands rest in the evening, for you do not know what will prosper-- whether this or that, or whether both of them alike will succeed.

The light is sweet, and it [is] pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in all of them! Let him remember that the days of the darkness will be many-- all that is coming [is] vanity!

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth! Follow the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes-- but know that God will bring you into judgment for all these things.

Banish anxiety from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and vigor [are] vanity.

My son, be careful {about anything beyond these things}. For the writing of books is endless, and too much study {is wearisome}.

Now that all has been heard, here is the final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commandments, for this [is] the whole [duty] of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.

The Song of Songs, which [is] for Solomon.

{May you kiss me} {passionately with your lips}, for your love [is] better than wine.

Tell me, [you] whom my {heart} loves, where do you pasture your flock, where do your sheep lie down at the noon? {For why should I be like} one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions?

To a mare among the chariots of Pharaoh, I compare you, my beloved.

We will make ornaments of gold for you with studs of silver.

Sustain me with the raisins, refresh me with the apples, {for I [am] lovesick}.

For look! The winter is over; {the rainy season} {has turned and gone away}.

My dove, in the clefts of the rock, {in the secluded place} {in the mountain}, Let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice [is] sweet and your face [is] lovely.

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes destroying vineyards, for our vineyards [are in] blossom!

{King Solomon} made for himself a sedan chair from the wood of Lebanon.

I [was] asleep but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved knocking! "Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one! For my head is full of dew, {my hair drenched from the moist night air}."

My beloved thrust his hand into the opening, and my inmost yearned for him.

Turn away your eyes from before me, for they overwhelm me. Your hair [is] like a flock of the goats that moves down from Gilead.

Your palate [is] like the best wine that goes down for my beloved, smoothly gliding over my lips and teeth.

The mandrakes give [off their] fragrance, and {over our doorway is every kind of delicious fruit}; both {fresh and dried fruit I have stored up} for you, O my beloved.

Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love [is] strong as death; passion [is] fierce as Sheol; its flashes [are] flashes of fire; [it is] a blazing flame.

Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house {for love}, he would be utterly scorned.

{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 Baal-hamon; {he entrusted his vineyard to the keepers}; {people paid a thousand silver [pieces] for its fruit}.

{My own "vineyard" belongs to me}; the "thousand" are for you, O Solomon, {and "two hundred" for those who tend its fruit}.

Hear, heavens, and listen, earth, for Yahweh has spoken: "I reared children and I brought [them] up, but they rebelled against me.

Your country [is] desolate, your cities [are] burned [with] fire; [As for] your land, aliens are devouring it in your presence, and [it is] desolate, like devastation [by] foreigners.

When you come to appear before me, who asked for this from your hand: you trampling my courts?

Learn to do good! Seek justice! Rescue [the] oppressed! Defend [the] orphan! Plead for [the] widow!

But if you refuse and you rebel, you shall be devoured [by the] sword. For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken."

For you will be ashamed of [the] oaks [in] which you delighted, and you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen.

For you shall be like an oak withering its leaves, and like a garden where there is no water for her.

many peoples shall come. And they shall say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob, and may he teach us part of his ways, and let us walk in his paths." For instruction shall go out from Zion, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations and he shall arbitrate for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. A nation shall not lift up a sword against a nation, and they shall not learn war again.

For you have forsaken your people, house of Jacob, because they are full from [the] east, and [of] soothsayers like the Philistines, and {they make alliances} with the offspring of foreigners.

For [there is] a day for Yahweh of hosts against all of [the] proud and [the] lofty and against all that is lifted up and humble,

On that day humanity will throw away its idols of silver and its idols of gold, which they made for it to worship, to the rodents and to the bats--

Turn away from humanity, who [has] breath in its nostrils, for by what [is] it esteemed?

For look, the Lord Yahweh of hosts [is] removing {every source of support} from Jerusalem and from Judah: all of [the] supplies of bread and all of [the] supplies of water,

Indeed, a man will seize his brother [in] the house of his father: "{You have a cloak}; you shall be a leader for us, and this heap of ruins [shall be] under your hand!"

For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen because their speech and their deeds [are] against Yahweh, defying the eyes of his glory.

The look on their faces testifies against them and they declare their sin like Sodom; they do not hide [it]. Woe to their soul! For they have dealt out evil to themselves.

Tell [the] innocent that [it is] good for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

Woe to the wicked! [It is] bad! For what is done [by] his hands will be done to him.

And this shall happen: He who is left in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone written for life in Jerusalem,

Then Yahweh will create over all of the site of {Mount Zion} and over her assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the brightness of flaming fire [by] night. Indeed, over all [the] glory [there will be] a canopy,

and it will be a shelter for shade from [the] heat by day, and a refuge and a hiding place from rainstorm and from rain.

Let me sing for my beloved a song of my love concerning his vineyard: {My beloved had a vineyard} on {a fertile hill}.

And he dug it and cleared it of stones, and he planted it [with] choice vines, and he built a watchtower in the middle of it, and he even hewed out a wine vat in it, and he waited for [it] to yield grapes-- but it yielded wild grapes.

What more [was there] to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why did I hope for [it] to yield grapes, and it yielded wild grapes?

For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts [is] the house of Israel, and the man of Judah [is] the plantation of his delight. [And] he waited for justice, but look! Bloodshed! For righteousness, but look! A cry of distress!

For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and [the] seed of a homer will yield an ephah.

Ah! Those who call evil good and good evil, those who put darkness for light and light for darkness, those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and dry grass sinks down [in the] flame, so their root will become like [the] stench, and their blossom will go up like [the] dust. For they have rejected the instruction of Yahweh of hosts, and they have treated the word of the holy one of Israel with contempt.

And he will raise a signal for a nation from afar, and he will whistle for it from the end of the earth. And look! It comes quickly, swiftly!

And I said, "Woe to me! For I am destroyed! For I [am] a man {of unclean lips}, and I [am] living among a people {of unclean lips}, for my eyes have seen the king, Yahweh of hosts!"

Then I heard [the] voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "I [am] here! Send me!"

Make the heart of this people insensitive, and make its ears unresponsive, and shut its eyes so that it may not look with its eyes and listen with its ears and comprehend [with] its mind and turn back, and it may be healed [for] him."

and Yahweh sends the people far away, and the abandonment is great in the midst of the land.

This happened in the days of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah. Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up [to] Jerusalem for warfare against it, but he was not able to fight against it.

And you must say to him, 'Take heed and be quiet! You must not fear, and your heart must not be faint because of these two stumps of smoldering firebrands, {because of the fierce anger of} Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.

For the head of Aram [is] Damascus, and the head of Damascus [is] Rezin, and in sixty-five years from now Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.

"Ask for a sign for yourself from Yahweh God; make [it] deep [as] Sheol or make [it] high as above."

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?

For before the boy knows to reject the evil and to choose the good, {the land whose two kings you dread will be abandoned.}

And this shall happen: On that day, Yahweh will whistle for the fly that [is] at the end of the stream of Egypt and the bee that [is] in the land of Assyria.

And this shall happen: because of the abundance of milk production, he will eat curds, for every one that is left in the midst of the land will eat curds and honey.