Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible





And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows;







For evil does not come out of the dust, or trouble out of the earth;


As for man, the son of woman, his days are short and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower, and is cut down: he goes in flight like a shade, and is never seen again.


You, who have sent great and bitter troubles on me, will give me life again, lifting me up from the deep waters of the underworld.


All his days are sorrow, and his work is full of grief. Even in the night his heart has no rest. This again is to no purpose.

Only his flesh still has pain, and his soul is sad.

But trouble is man's fate from birth, as the flames go up from the fire.

The nets of death were round me, and the pains of the underworld had me in their grip; I was full of trouble and sorrow.

We were looking for peace, but no good came; and for a time of well-being, but there is only a great fear.



Give ear to another story. A master of a house made a vine garden, and put a wall round it, and made a place for crushing out the wine, and made a tower, and let it out to field-workers, and went into another country. And when the time for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the workmen, to get the fruit. And the workmen made an attack on his servants, giving blows to one, putting another to death, and stoning another. read more.
Again, he sent other servants more in number than the first: and they did the same to them. But after that he sent his son to them, saying, They will have respect for my son. But when the workmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is he who will one day be the owner of the property; come, let us put him to death and take his heritage. And they took him and, driving him out of the vine-garden, put him to death. When, then, the lord of the vine-garden comes, what will he do to those workmen? They say to him, He will put those cruel men to a cruel death, and will let out the vine-garden to other workmen, who will give him the fruit when it is ready.

Has not man his ordered time of trouble on the earth? and are not his days like the days of a servant working for payment? As a servant desiring the shades of evening, and a workman looking for his payment: So I have for my heritage months of pain to no purpose, and nights of weariness are given to me.

Let your eyes be turned away from him, and take your hand from him, so that he may have pleasure at the end of his day, like a servant working for payment.

For the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a house, who went out early in the morning to get workers into his vine-garden. And when he had made an agreement with the workmen for a penny a day, he sent them into his vine-garden. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others in the market-place doing nothing; read more.
And he said to them, Go into the vine-garden with the others, and whatever is right I will give you. And they went to work. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and saw others doing nothing; and he says to them, Why are you here all the day doing nothing? They say to him, Because no man has given us work. He says to them, Go in with the rest, into the vine-garden. And when evening came, the lord of the vine-garden said to his manager, Let the workers come, and give them their payment, from the last to the first. And when those men came who had gone to work at the eleventh hour, they were given every man a penny. Then those who came first had the idea that they would get more; and they, like the rest, were given a penny. And when they got it, they made a protest against the master of the house, Saying, These last have done only one hour's work, and you have made them equal to us, who have undergone the hard work of the day and the burning heat. But he in answer said to one of them, Friend, I do you no wrong: did you not make an agreement with me for a penny? Take what is yours, and go away; it is my pleasure to give to this last, even as to you. Have I not the right to do as seems good to me in my house? or is your eye evil, because I am good?

He who is a servant, and not the keeper or the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and goes in flight, away from the sheep; and the wolf comes down on them and sends them in all directions: Because he is a servant he has no interest in the sheep.







As for man, his days are as grass: his beautiful growth is like the flower of the field. The wind goes over it and it is gone; and its place sees it no longer.

As for man, the son of woman, his days are short and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower, and is cut down: he goes in flight like a shade, and is never seen again. Is it on such a one as this that your eyes are fixed, with the purpose of judging him? read more.
If only a clean thing might come out of an unclean! But it is not possible. If his days are ordered, and you have knowledge of the number of his months, having given him a fixed limit past which he may not go;


As for man, the son of woman, his days are short and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower, and is cut down: he goes in flight like a shade, and is never seen again.

But trouble is man's fate from birth, as the flames go up from the fire.




As for man, the son of woman, his days are short and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower, and is cut down: he goes in flight like a shade, and is never seen again. Is it on such a one as this that your eyes are fixed, with the purpose of judging him? read more.
If only a clean thing might come out of an unclean! But it is not possible. If his days are ordered, and you have knowledge of the number of his months, having given him a fixed limit past which he may not go; Let your eyes be turned away from him, and take your hand from him, so that he may have pleasure at the end of his day, like a servant working for payment. For there is hope of a tree; if it is cut down, it will come to life again, and its branches will not come to an end. Though its root may be old in the earth, and its cut-off end may be dead in the dust; Still, at the smell of water, it will make buds, and put out branches like a young plant. But man comes to his death and is gone: he gives up his spirit, and where is he?


Truly you had no word of them, no knowledge of them; no news of them in the past had come to your ears; because I saw how false was your behaviour, and that your heart was turned against me from your earliest days.

As for man, the son of woman, his days are short and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower, and is cut down: he goes in flight like a shade, and is never seen again. Is it on such a one as this that your eyes are fixed, with the purpose of judging him? read more.
If only a clean thing might come out of an unclean! But it is not possible.

Have pity on me, O God, in your mercy; out of a full heart, take away my sin. Let all my wrongdoing be washed away, and make me clean from evil. For I am conscious of my error; my sin is ever before me. read more.
Against you, you only, have I done wrong, working that which is evil in your eyes; so that your words may be seen to be right, and you may be clear when you are judging. Truly, I was formed in evil, and in sin did my mother give me birth.

Is there righteousness in your mouths, O you gods? are you upright judges, O you sons of men? The purposes of your hearts are evil; your hands are full of cruel doings on the earth. The evil-doers are strange from the first; from the hour of their birth they go out of the true way, saying false words.

And to you did he give life, when you were dead through your wrongdoing and sins, In which you were living in the past, after the ways of this present world, doing the pleasure of the lord of the power of the air, the spirit who is now working in those who go against the purpose of God; Among whom we all at one time were living in the pleasures of our flesh, giving way to the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and the punishment of God was waiting for us even as for the rest.




And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows;






You, who have sent great and bitter troubles on me, will give me life again, lifting me up from the deep waters of the underworld.


All his days are sorrow, and his work is full of grief. Even in the night his heart has no rest. This again is to no purpose.

Only his flesh still has pain, and his soul is sad.

But trouble is man's fate from birth, as the flames go up from the fire.

The nets of death were round me, and the pains of the underworld had me in their grip; I was full of trouble and sorrow.

We were looking for peace, but no good came; and for a time of well-being, but there is only a great fear.


As for man, the son of woman, his days are short and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower, and is cut down: he goes in flight like a shade, and is never seen again.

But trouble is man's fate from birth, as the flames go up from the fire.