What was weak man, that thou shouldst make mention of him? or the son of the earthborn, that thou shouldst set him in charge?

When the pillars are overthrown, What could, a righteous man, do?

What profit in my blood? in my going down into the pit? Can dust praise thee? Can it declare thy faithfulness?

There rise up witnesses helping forward violence and wrong, What I know not, they demand of me:

Let me know, O Yahweh, mine end, And the measure of my days - what it is, I would know how short-lived I am.

Now, therefore, for what have I waited, O My Lord? My hope, is, in thee.

But, to the lawless one, God saith, What hast, thou, to do, to recount my statutes? Or that thou hast taken up my covenant upon thy mouth?

What day I am afraid, I, unto thee will direct my confidence.

In God, I wilt praise his cause, - In God, have I trusted, I will not fear, What can flesh do unto me?

In God, have I trusted, I will not fear, What can a son of earth do unto me!

Come! hearken - that I may recount, all ye reverers of God, What he hath done for my soul: -

More than the hairs of my head, Are they who hate me without cause, - Firmer than my bones, Are they who are my foes for false cause, - What I had not plundered, then, had I to restore.

So they did eat and were abundantly filled, When, what they longed for, he had brought them: -

They had not turned away from what they had longed for, Yet was their food in their mouth,

For, a sun and shield, is Yahweh God, - Grace and glory, will Yahweh give, He will not withhold what is good, from them who walk without blame.

I will hear, what GOD - Yahweh - will speak, - For he will bespeak prosperity to his people, And to his men of lovingkindness, And to them who return with their heart unto him.

When your fathers, tested me, They proved me, yea they also saw what I could do.

What aileth thee, O sea, that thou fleest? O Jordan, that thou turnest back?

Yahweh, is on my side, I will not fear, What can man, do unto me?

In my heart, have I treasured what thou hast said, to the end I may not sin against thee.

What shall be given to thee, and what shall be added to thee, thou deceitful tongue?

O Yahweh! what is the earthborn, And yet thou hast acknowledged him, - the son of a mortal, And yet thou hast taken account of him:

The way of the lawless, is like darkness, they know not, at what they stumble.

The woman Stupidity, is boisterous, so simple that she knoweth not what she would do;

The lips of the righteous, know what is pleasing, but, the mouth of the lawless, speaketh perversities.

There is who scattereth, and increaseth yet more, and who withholdeth of what is due, only to come to want.

Of the fruit of his mouth, shall a man eat what is good, but, the soul of the treacherous, shall be sated with violence.

When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, thou shall consider well, what is before thee;

Do not say - According to what he hath done to me, so, will I do to him, I will repay every one according to his work.

Do not go forth to strive in haste, - lest thou know not what to do in the latter end thereof, when thy neighbour, hath put thee to shame.

Do not boast thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

Fining pot for silver, and crucible for gold, and, a man, is to be tried by what he praiseth.

Who hath ascended the heavens and then descended? Who hath gathered the wind into his two hands? Who hath wrapped up the waters in a mantle? Who hath set up all the ends of the earth? What is his name and what the name of his son, when thou knowest?

What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? aye what, the son of my vows?

What profit hath Man, in all his toil wherewith he toileth under the sun?

Of laughter, I said, Madness! and, of mirth, What can it do?

Thus turned, I, to look at wisdom, and madness and folly, - for what can the man do more who cometh after the king? save that which, already, men have done.

For what hath the man for all his toil, and for the striving of his heart, - wherein, he himself, toiled under the sun?

A time to be born, and a time to die, - A time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted;

What profit hath he that worketh, in that wherein, himself, hath toiled?

When thou vowest a vow unto God, do not defer to pay it, for there is no pleasure in dullards, - what thou vowest, pay!

When blessings are increased, increased are the eaters thereof, - what profit, then, to the owner of them saving the sight of his eyes?

Even this, moreover, is an incurable evil, altogether as he came, so, shall he depart, - what profit then shall he have who toileth for the wind?

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:

For what profit hath the wise man, over the dullard? What can, the poor man, know - so as to walk before the living?

Better what the eyes behold, than the wandering of desire, - even this, was vanity, and a feeding on wind.

Seeing there are things in abundance which make vanity abound, what profit hath man?

For who knoweth what is good for a man throughout his life, for the number of the days of his life of vanity, seeing he will make them, like a shadow, - for who can tell a man, what shall be after him, under the sun?

Do not say, What hath happened, that, the former days, were better than these? for, not wisely, askest thou concerning this.

Consider the work of God, - for who can straighten what he hath bent?

what my soul still sought, yet I found not, - one man out of a thousand, have I found, but, a woman among all these, have I not found.

Where the word of a king is, there is power, - who then may say to him, What wouldst thou do?

For there is no one who knoweth what shall be, for, when it shall be, who will tell him?

Give a portion to seven, yea even to eight, - for thou canst not know, what there shall be of misfortune, upon the earth.

Just as thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, when the body is in the womb of her that is with child, even, so, canst thou not know the work of God, who maketh all.

Yea, at what is high, they be in fear, and there be, terrors, in the way, and the almond be rejected, and the grasshopper drag itself along, and desire perish, - for man is going to his age-abiding home, when the wailers shall go round in the streets;

I adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem, - If ye find my beloved, what will ye tell him? That, sick with love, I am.

DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEMWhat is thy beloved more than any other beloved, thou most beautiful among women? What is thy beloved more than any other beloved, that, thus, thou hast adjured us?

THEYA sister, have we, a little one, and, breasts, hath she none, What shall we do for our sister, in the day when she may be spoken for?

Of what use to me, is your multitude of sacrifices: Saith Yahweh: I am sated with ascending-offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts, - In the blood of bulls and young rams and he-goats, have I no pleasure.

Alas! for the lawless, it is ill, For what his own hand hath matured, shall he done to him.

What right have ye to crush my people, And the faces of the oppressed, to grind? Demandeth My Lord Yahweh of hosts - And Yahweh saith -

What could have been done further to my vineyard, That I had not done in it? Why then - When I had waited that it should bring forth grapes, Brought it forth, wild grapes?

Now, therefore, I pray you, let me tell, you, what I am about to do to my vineyard, - To take away the fence thereof And it shall be eaten up, To destroy the wall thereof And it shall be trodden down;

What, then, will ye do for the day of visitation, And for the devastation, which from afar, shall come? Unto whom, will ye flee for help? And where will ye leave your gory?

Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Or, the saw, magnify itself, against him that wieldeth it? As if a rod, could wield, them who lift it up! As if a staff, could raise, what is, not wood!

What, then, shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Yahweh, hath founded Zion, And in her, shall seek refuge the oppressed of his people.

For this cause, mine inward parts - for Moab, like a lyre, shall make a plaintive sound, - Yea what is within me, for Kir-heres.

And he shall not look unto the altars the work of his own hands, - Nor to what his own fingers have made, shall his eye be turned, Whether Sacred Stems or Sun-pillars.

Where then are thy wise men? Pray let them tell thee! And let them know what Yahweh of hosts hath purposed on Egypt!

For, thus, hath My Lord said unto me, - Go, set the watchman, What he seeth, let him tell!

The oracle on the valley of vision, - What aileth thee, then, That thou art wholly gone up to the house-tops?

What doest thou here? And whom hast thou here? That thou hast hewn for thyself here a sepulchre, - As one hewing on high his sepulchre, Cutting out in the cliff a habitation for himself?

Tremble, ye women in comfort, Be troubled ye daughters so confident, - Strip! and bare yourselves, and gird some-what on your loins:

Hear - ye that are far off. what I have done, And know - ye that are near my might:

Then shall be dissolved all the host of the heavens, And the heavens shall roll up as a scroll, - Yea, all their host, shall fade - Like the fading and falling of a leaf from a vine, and Like what fadeth and falleth from a fig-tree.

And Rabshakeh said unto them, Pray you say unto Hezekiah, - Thus, saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What is this trust, wherewith then dost trust?

But Rabshakeh said - Is it unto thy lord and unto thee, that my lord hath sent me, to speak these things? Is it not concerning the men who are tarrying upon the wall, that they may eat and drink what cometh from them, with you?

Lo! thou, thyself, hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands in devoting them to destruction, - and shalt, thou, be delivered?

Hast thou not heard - That, long ago, that, is what I appointed, And from days of old, devised? Now, have I brought it to pass, That thou mightest Serve to lay waste, in desolate ruins, fortified cities;

What can I say? Since he hath promised for me, Himself, will perform. I will go softly, all my years. Because of the bitterness of my soul,

And Hezekiah had said - What is the sign - that I shall go up unto the house of Yahweh?

Then came Isaiah the prophet, unto King Hezekiah, - and said unto him - What said these men? and whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, From a land far away, came they unto me, from Babylon!

And he said, What have they seen in thy house? Then said Hezekiah, - All that is in my house, have they seen, there is nothing which I shewed them not among my treasures.

A voice saying Cry! And one said - What should I cry? All flesh, is grass, And, all the grace thereof, like the flower of the field:

Unto whom then can ye liken GOD? Or, what likeness, can ye compare unto him?

Let them advance them, and tell us, What shall happen, - Things known in advance - what they were, tell ye, That we may lay them to our heart and mark the after-story of them, Or, things yet to come, let us hear:

Who hath told in advance, that we might know, And beforetime, that we might say Right! Nay, there is none who can tell. Nay, there is none who can let us hear, Nay, there is none who can understand what ye utter.

Alas for him who contendeth with his Fashioner, - A potsherd, should contend with the potsherds of the ground! Shall it be said by the clay, unto him that is fashioning it, What wouldst thou make? Or, thy work say, of thee, He hath no hands?

Alas, for one who saith to a father, What begettest thou? Or to a woman What dost thou bring forth?

Now, therefore, what do I here? Demandeth Yahweh. That my people have been taken away for nought? They who rule them, do howl, Declareth Yahweh, And, continually - all the day, is my Name brought into contempt.

Who believed what we have heard? And, the arm of Yahweh, to whom was it revealed?

For thus, saith Yahweh - Of the eunuchs, Who shall keep my sabbaths, And choose what I delight in, - And lay firm hold on my covenant,

But joy ye and exult, perpetually, in what I am about to create, - For, behold me! Creating Jerusalem an exultation and Her People a joy;

Moreover the Word of Yahweh came unto me saying, What canst thou see Jeremiah? And I said, A twig of an almond-tree, can I see.

And the word of Yahweh came unto me a second time saying, What canst thou see? And I said, A boiling caldron, Can I see, with, the front thereof lion the North.

Thus, saith Yahweh, - What did your fathers find in me by way of perversity, that they removed far from me, - and went after vanity, and became vain?

Is not this what thou wast certain to do for thyself, - in that thou didst forsake Yahweh thy God, when he was leading thee by the way?

Now, therefore what hast thou to do with the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of Shihor? Or what hast thou to do with the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?

How canst thou say, I have not defiled myself, After the Baalim, have I not gone? See thy way, in the valley, Own what thou hast done, - A nimble young she-camel, crossing her own ways;