The Lord is for me; I will not fear;
What can man do to me?

What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you,
You deceitful tongue?

The Lord will accomplish what concerns me;
Your lovingkindness, O Lord, is everlasting;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

O Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him?
Or the son of man, that You think of him?

The way of the wicked is like darkness;
They do not know over what they stumble.

What the wicked fears will come upon him,
But the desire of the righteous will be granted.

The lips of the righteous bring forth what is acceptable,
But the mouth of the wicked what is perverted.

There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more,
And there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want.

He who speaks truth tells what is right,
But a false witness, deceit.

What is desirable in a man is his kindness,
And it is better to be a poor man than a liar.

When you sit down to dine with a ruler,
Consider carefully what is before you,

And my inmost being will rejoice
When your lips speak what is right.

Do not go out hastily to argue your case;
Otherwise, what will you do in the end,
When your neighbor humiliates you?

Have you found honey? Eat only what you need,
That you not have it in excess and vomit it.

Do not boast about tomorrow,
For you do not know what a day may bring forth.

Who has ascended into heaven and descended?
Who has gathered the wind in His fists?
Who has wrapped the waters in His garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is His name or His son’s name?
Surely you know!

What, O my son?
And what, O son of my womb?
And what, O son of my vows?

For they will drink and forget what is decreed,
And pervert the rights of all the afflicted.

What advantage does man have in all his work
Which he does under the sun?

What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted.

I said of laughter, “It is madness,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?”

I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives.

So I turned to consider wisdom, madness and folly; for what will the man do who will come after the king except what has already been done?

For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun?

A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.

What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?

That which is has been already and that which will be has already been, for God seeks what has passed by.

I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his activities, for that is his lot. For who will bring him to see what will occur after him?

When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow!

When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look on?

This also is a grievous evil—exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind?

Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward.

For what advantage does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have, knowing how to walk before the living?

What the eyes see is better than what the soul desires. This too is futility and a striving after wind.

Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is; for he cannot dispute with him who is stronger than he is.

For there are many words which increase futility. What then is the advantage to a man?

For who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime, during the few years of his futile life? He will spend them like a shadow. For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

Consider the work of God,
For who is able to straighten what He has bent?

What has been is remote and exceedingly mysterious. Who can discover it?

Since the word of the king is authoritative, who will say to him, “What are you doing?”

If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?

Yet the fool multiplies words. No man knows what will happen, and who can tell him what will come after him?

Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.

“What is this coming up from the wilderness
Like columns of smoke,
Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
With all scented powders of the merchant?

“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
If you find my beloved,
As to what you will tell him:
For I am lovesick.”

“What kind of beloved is your beloved,
O most beautiful among women?
What kind of beloved is your beloved,
That thus you adjure us?”

“We have a little sister,
And she has no breasts;
What shall we do for our sister
On the day when she is spoken for?

“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?”
Says the Lord.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle;
And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats.

Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him,
For what he deserves will be done to him.

“What do you mean by crushing My people
And grinding the face of the poor?”
Declares the Lord God of hosts.

“What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?

“So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed;
I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.

“You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’
In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,
And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.

They slice off what is on the right hand but still are hungry,
And they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;
Each of them eats the flesh of his own arm.

Now what will you do in the day of punishment,
And in the devastation which will come from afar?
To whom will you flee for help?
And where will you leave your wealth?

And He will delight in the fear of the Lord,
And He will not judge by what His eyes see,
Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;

Well then, where are your wise men?
Please let them tell you,
And let them understand what the Lord of hosts
Has purposed against Egypt.

For thus the Lord says to me,
“Go, station the lookout, let him report what he sees.

O my threshed people, and my afflicted of the threshing floor!
What I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
The God of Israel, I make known to you.

The oracle concerning the valley of vision.
What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?

‘What right do you have here,
And whom do you have here,
That you have hewn a tomb for yourself here,
You who hew a tomb on the height,
You who carve a resting place for yourself in the rock?

“As often as it passes through, it will seize you;
For morning after morning it will pass through, anytime during the day or night,
And it will be sheer terror to understand what it means.”

You turn things around!
Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay,
That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”;
Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”;
And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right,
Speak to us pleasant words,
Prophesy illusions.

As for a rogue, his weapons are evil;
He devises wicked schemes
To destroy the afflicted with slander,
Even though the needy one speaks what is right.

“You who are far away, hear what I have done;
And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this confidence that you have?

Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be spared?

“Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

and said, “Remember now, O Lord, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

“What shall I say?
For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;
I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”

Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.”

He said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them.”

A voice says, “Call out.”
Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”
All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.

To whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare with Him?

Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place;
As for the former events, declare what they were,
That we may consider them and know their outcome.
Or announce to us what is coming;

“Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—
An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth!
Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’
Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?

“Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’
Or to a woman, ‘To what are you giving birth?’”

“You are wearied with your many counsels;
Let now the astrologers,
Those who prophesy by the stars,
Those who predict by the new moons,
Stand up and save you from what will come upon you.

Now therefore, what do I have here,” declares the Lord, “seeing that My people have been taken away without cause?” Again the Lord declares, “Those who rule over them howl, and My name is continually blasphemed all day long.

Thus He will sprinkle many nations,
Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him;
For what had not been told them they will see,
And what they had not heard they will understand.

“Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight yourself in abundance.

So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

For thus says the Lord,
“To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths,
And choose what pleases Me,
And hold fast My covenant,

“But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing
And her people for gladness.

So I will choose their punishments
And will bring on them what they dread.
Because I called, but no one answered;
I spoke, but they did not listen.
And they did evil in My sight
And chose that in which I did not delight.”

The word of the Lord came to me saying, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “I see a rod of an almond tree.”

The word of the Lord came to me a second time saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.”

Thus says the Lord,
“What injustice did your fathers find in Me,
That they went far from Me
And walked after emptiness and became empty?

“But now what are you doing on the road to Egypt,
To drink the waters of the Nile?
Or what are you doing on the road to Assyria,
To drink the waters of the Euphrates?

“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled,
I have not gone after the Baals’?
Look at your way in the valley!
Know what you have done!
You are a swift young camel entangling her ways,

Then the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there.

And you, O desolate one, what will you do?
Although you dress in scarlet,
Although you decorate yourself with ornaments of gold,
Although you enlarge your eyes with paint,
In vain you make yourself beautiful.
Your lovers despise you;
They seek your life.

“Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord.
“It is an enduring nation,
It is an ancient nation,
A nation whose language you do not know,
Nor can you understand what they say.

The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule on their own authority;
And My people love it so!
But what will you do at the end of it?

“Therefore hear, O nations,
And know, O congregation, what is among them.

“For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba
And the sweet cane from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable
And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”

“But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?