As a roaring lion or a charging bear, so is a wicked ruler over helpless people.

For as the churning of milk brings forth butter, and the wringing of the nose brings forth blood; so the forcing of wrath brings forth strife."

The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north. It turns around continually as it goes, and the wind returns again to its courses.

Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness.

Then said I in my heart, "As it happens to the fool, so will it happen even to me; and why was I then more wise?" Then said I in my heart that this also is vanity.

For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no memory for ever, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. Indeed, the wise man must die just like the fool.

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice, and to do good as long as they live.

I said in my heart, "As for the sons of men, God tests them, so that they may see that they themselves are like animals.

For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one breath; and man has no advantage over the animals: for all is vanity.

For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool's speech with a multitude of words.

For in the multitude of dreams there are vanities, as well as in many words: but you must fear God.

As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand.

This also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit does he have who labors for the wind?

For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity.

Do not say, "Why were the former days better than these?" For you do not ask wisely about this.

Wisdom is as good as an inheritance. Yes, it is more excellent for those who see the sun.

For wisdom is a defense, even as money is a defense; but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn't sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears an oath.

For man also doesn't know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.

As you do not know what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child; even so you do not know the work of God who does all.

and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you rest them at noon; For why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions?

As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

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

Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, that descend from Mount Gilead.

His head is like the purest gold. His hair is bushy, black as a raven.

His legs are like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

You are beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners.

Who is she who looks forth as the morning, beautiful as the moon, clear as the sun, and awesome as an army with banners?

Return, return, Shulammite. Return, return, that we may gaze at you. Why do you desire to gaze at the Shulammite, as at the dance of Mahanaim?

Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a very flame of the LORD.

Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

Unless the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have been like Gomorrah.

"Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD: "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called 'The city of righteousness, a faithful town.'

For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water.

As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.

Moreover the LORD said, "Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes, walking to trip as they go, jingling ornaments on their feet;

Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.

Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope;

Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore the LORD's anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them, and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out.

If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remains when they are felled; so the holy seed is its stock."

It was told the house of David, saying, "Syria is allied with Ephraim." His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.

"Ask a sign of the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above."

But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD."

The LORD of hosts is who you must regard as holy. He is the one you must fear. He is the one you must dread.

You have multiplied the nation. You have increased their joy. They rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.

As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose engraved images exceeded those of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

Should an axe brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who is not wood.

He will consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body. It will be as when a standard bearer faints.

Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts, says "My people who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff against you, as Egypt did.

The LORD of hosts will stir up a scourge against him, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. His rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up like he did against Egypt.

They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together. The LORD of hosts is mustering the army for the battle.

Wail; for the day of the LORD is at hand. It will come as destruction from Shaddai.

Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.

The peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in the LORD's land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

They all will answer and ask you, "Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?"

The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, "Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

For it will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.

Let my outcasts dwell with you. As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortioner is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land.

But now the LORD has spoken, saying, "Within three years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and feeble."

The fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel," says the LORD of hosts.

The LORD said, "As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia,

The oracle of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the Negev sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.

For the Lord said to me, "Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, the glory of Kedar will fail,

It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest.

For it will be so in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is done.

As the heat in a dry place will you bring down the noise of strangers; as the heat by the shade of a cloud, the song of the dreaded ones will be brought low.

Like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, LORD.

Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed?

Therefore, by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherim and the incense altars shall rise no more.

The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer; which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it.

As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message."

For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act.

And as for you, do not be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the LORD of hosts, on the whole earth.

When he has leveled its surface, doesn't he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and emmer as its borders?

then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth.

You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.

Therefore, behold, as for me I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden."

Isn't it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest?

He will break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won't be found among the broken piece a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern."

You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, "Go away."

Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire.

His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction; and a bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.

You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to the LORD's mountain, to Israel's Rock.

For thus says the LORD to me, "As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them, so the LORD of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights.

As birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it."

A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.

Your spoil will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap.

All of the host of heaven will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.

It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.

The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day. The father shall make known your truth to the children.

Behold, the Lord GOD will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

Who has known the mind of the LORD, or has taught him as his counselor?

Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.

All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.