All this I have proved by wisdom; I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.

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

I set my heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness;

Behold, this I have found, says the Preacher, counting one by one, to find out the sum,

Lo, this only I have found, that God has made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.

Because the word of a king is that which has power; and who may say to him, What are you doing?

For he does not know what shall be; for who can tell him when it shall be?

Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days be made longer, yet surely I know that it shall be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him.

But it shall not be well with the wicked, nor shall he make his days longer like a shadow; because he does not fear before God.

There is a vanity which is done on the earth: There are just ones to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked ones to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

Then I praised gladness, because a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat and to drink and to be glad; for that shall go with him of his labor for the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.

Then I looked at all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun; because though a man labors to seek it out, yet he shall not find it. Yea, further, though a wise one speaks of knowing, yet he shall not be able to find it.

Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God now is pleased with your works.

Let your garments be always white; and let your head lack no ointment.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave where you go.

I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all.

For man also does not know his time; as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.

This wisdom I have seen also under the sun, and it seemed great to me.

There was a little city, and few men in it; and a great king came against it and besieged it, and built huge bulwarks against it.

And a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that poor man.

A man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left.

He who digs a pit shall fall into it; and whoever breaks a hedge, a snake shall bite him.

Whoever removes stones shall be hurt with them. He who splits wood shall be endangered by it.

If the iron is blunt, and he does not whet the edge, then he must put more strength to it. But wisdom is profitable to direct.

A fool also makes many words; a man knows not what they shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?

Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child and your leaders eat in the morning.

Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your leaders eat in due time, for strength, and not for drunkenness!

Cast your bread on the waters; for you shall find it after many days.

Give a share to seven, and also to eight; for you know not what evil shall be on the earth.

If the clouds are full of rain, they empty on the earth; and if the tree falls toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it shall be.

As you do not know what is the way of the spirit, as how the bones grow in the pregnant woman's womb; even so you do not know the works of God who makes all.

In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; for you do not know what shall be blessed, either this or that, or whether they both shall be fruitful in the same way.

Also the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun;

but if a man lives many years, and rejoices in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many. All that comes is vanity.

in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men are bowed, and the grinders cease because there are few, and those who look out of the windows are darkened,

and the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and you shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music are silenced;

or ever the silver cord is not loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern;

then the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.

The preacher sought to find out pleasing words; and words of truth written by the upright.

For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it is good, or whether evil.

For Your ointments have a lovely fragrance; Your name is as oil poured out; therefore the virgins love You.

Tell me, You whom my soul loves, where do You feed, where do You lie down at noon? For why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of Your companions?

As the apple among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste.

My Beloved is like a roe or a young hart. Behold, He stands behind our wall, He looks forth at the windows, peering from the lattice.

For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over; it goes to itself.

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles, and by the does of the field, do not stir up nor awake my love until it pleases.

Who is this coming up out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, from all the merchant's powders?

Behold his bed, Solomon's! Sixty mighty men are around it, of Israel's mighty men.

Awake, O north wind; and come, south wind; blow on my garden, so that the spices of it may flow out. Let my Beloved come into His garden and eat His pleasant fruits.

I have come into My garden, My sister, My spouse; I have gathered My myrrh with My spice; I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey; I have drunk My wine with My milk. Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O Beloved.

I sleep, but my heart is awake. It is the sound of my Beloved that knocks, saying, Open to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled; for My head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night.

I have put off My coat; How shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

I opened to my Beloved, but my Beloved had left. He passed on. My soul went out when He spoke; I sought Him, but I could not find Him. I called Him, but He did not answer me.

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my Beloved, what do you tell Him? That I am sick with love.

What is your Beloved more than another beloved, most beautiful among women? What is your Beloved more than another beloved, that you adjure us so?

My Beloved is bright and ruddy, standing out among ten thousand.

Return, return, O Shulamite! Return, return, that we may look on you. What will you see in the Shulamite? As it were the dance of two camps.

Your navel is like a round goblet, which never lacks mixed wine; your belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies.

Come, my Beloved, let us go out into the field; let us stay in the villages.

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, why should you stir up or awaken my Love until it pleases?

Many waters cannot quench love, nor will the rivers overflow it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be scorned.

We have a little sister, and she has no breasts; what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?

Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; everyone for its fruit was to bring a thousand of silver.

From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it; only a wound and a stripe and a fresh blow; they have not been closed, nor bound up, nor soothed with oil.

Your land is wasted, your cities burned with fire. Strangers devour your land right before your eyes, and it is wasted, as overthrown by strangers.

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? says Jehovah; I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he-goats.

When you come to appear before Me, who has required this at your hand, to trample My courts?

And when you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood.

learn to do good; seek judgment, reprove the oppressor. Judge the orphan, plead for the widow.

Come now, and let us reason together, says Jehovah; though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.

If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

How has the faithful city become a harlot? It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.

your rulers are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves a bribe, and is pursuing rewards; they do not judge the orphan, nor does the cause of the widow come to them.

And I will restore your judges as at first, and your counselors as at the beginning; afterwards you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.

And the strong shall be like tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall put them out.

And it shall be, in the last days the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it.

And many people shall go and say, Come, and let us go to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob. And He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go out the Law, and the Word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.

And it shall be on all the high and lifted up cedars of Lebanon, and on all the oaks of Bashan,

Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostril; for in what is he to be esteemed?

The look of their faces witnesses against them; and they declare their sin like Sodom. They do not hide it! Woe to their soul! For they have rewarded evil to themselves.

Say to the righteous that it is well; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

What do you mean? You crush My people and grind the faces of the poor? says the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts.

And Jehovah says, Because the daughters of Zion are proud, and have walked with stretched out necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet;

And it shall be, instead of sweet smell, there shall be an odor of decay; and instead of a sash, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a wrapping of sackcloth; burning instead of beauty.

And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, we will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing; only let us be called by your name, to take away our shame.

And it shall be, he who is left in Zion, and he who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem;

And He fenced it, and gathered out the stones of it, and planted it with choice vines, and built a tower in its midst, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and He looked for it to produce grapes. And it produced wild grapes.

What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Who knows? I looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded rotten grapes.

And now I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard; I will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down;

and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor dug; but briers and thorns shall come up. And I will command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.

And the lyre, and the harp, the timbrel, and pipe, and wine, are at their feasts; but they do not regard the work of Jehovah. Yea, they do not see the work of His hands.

So hell has enlarged itself, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pride, and he who rejoices in her, shall go down into it.

Then shall the lambs feed in their way, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

who say, Let Him hurry and hasten His work, so that we may see it; and let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, so that we may know!

Therefore the anger of Jehovah is kindled on His people, and He has stretched out His hand against them, and has stricken them; and the hills trembled, and their dead bodies were as filth in the midst of the streets. In all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.

Their roaring shall be like a lion; they shall roar like young lions; for, they shall roar and lay hold of the prey, and carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.

Above it stood the seraphs; each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

And the doorposts moved at the voice of the one who cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

And he laid it on my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.

But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return and be consumed like the terebinth and like the oak being felled, yet has its stump; the holy seed is its stump.