'May' in the Bible

Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may lengthen his life, still I know that it will be well for those who fear God, who fear Him openly.

then I saw that all is the work of God, and that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because however man may labour to seek it out, yet doth he not find it; and even, if a wise man think to know it, he shall not be able to find it out.

All this I took to heart, and my heart saw it all: that the upright and the wise and their works are in the hand of God; and men may not be certain if it will be love or hate; all is to no purpose before them.

Again, I observed this on the earth: the race is not always won by the swiftest, the battle is not always won by the strongest; prosperity does not always belong to those who are the wisest, wealth does not always belong to those who are the most discerning, nor does success always come to those with the most knowledge -- for time and chance may overcome them all.

If the wrath of the ruler is against you, keep in your place; in him who keeps quiet even great sins may be overlooked.

The one who digs a pit may fall into it,and the one who breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.

The one who quarries stones may be hurt by them;the one who splits trees may be endangered by them.

Do not curse the king even in your thoughts,and do not curse a rich person even in your bedroom,for a bird of the sky may carry the message,and a winged creature may report the matter.

Send your bread on the surface of the waters,for after many days you may find it.

Give a portion to seven or even to eight,for you don’t know what disaster may happen on earth.

Indeed, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything that is to come will be futility.

“May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!For your love is better than wine.

Draw me after you; let us hurry! May the king bring me into his bedroom chambers! The Maidens to the Lover: We will rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. The Beloved to Her Lover: How rightly the young women adore you!

Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. May you journey from the top of Amana, from the tops of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountain lairs of leopards.

Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

I have put off my coat; how may I put it on? My feet are washed; how may I make them unclean?

Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.

There may be sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and young women without number.

Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.

Your navel is a round mixing bowl -- may it never lack mixed wine! Your belly is a mound of wheat, encircled by lilies.

I said, “I will climb the palm treeand take hold of its fruit.”May your breasts be like clusters of grapes,and the fragrance of your breath like apricots.

May your mouth be like good wine. May it go down smoothly to my beloved, gliding gently over the lips of the sleeping ones.

Much water may not put out love, or the deep waters overcome it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be judged a price not great enough.

Come now, and let us have an argument together, says the Lord: how may your sins which are red like blood be white as snow? how may their dark purple seem like wool?

and many peoples will come and say,“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,to the house of the God of Jacob.He will teach us about His waysso that we may walk in His paths.”For instruction will go out of Zionand the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoningAgainst everyone who is proud and loftyAnd against everyone who is lifted up,That he may be abased.

And in that day seven women will put their hands on one man, saying, There will be no need for you to give us food or clothing, only let us go under your name, so that our shame may be taken away.

And a covering may be, For a shadow by day from drought, And for a refuge, and for a hiding place, From inundation and from rain!

Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!

That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!

Make the heart of this people insensitive, and make its ears unresponsive, and shut its eyes so that it may not look with its eyes and listen with its ears and comprehend [with] its mind and turn back, and it may be healed [for] him."

Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

Now in that day a man may keep alive a heifer and a pair of sheep;

And he will be for a holy place: but for a stone of falling and a rock of trouble to the two houses of Israel, and to the men of Jerusalem, for a net in which they may be taken.

To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

And I have put my hands on the wealth of the peoples, as on the place where a bird has put her eggs; and as a man may take the eggs from which a bird has gone, so I have taken all the earth for myself: and not a wing was moved, and not a mouth gave out a sound.

And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.

For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea,Only a remnant within them will return;A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.

And the Lord will make the tongue of the Egyptian sea completely dry; and with his burning wind his hand will be stretched out over the River, and it will be parted into seven streams, so that men may go over it with dry feet.

Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.

“You will not be united with them in burial,Because you have ruined your country,You have slain your people.May the offspring of evildoers not be mentioned forever.

Prepare ye slaughter for his children, because of the iniquity of their fathers; that they may not rise up and possess the earth, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

For it is the purpose of the Lord of armies, and who will make it of no effect? when his hand is stretched out, by whom may it be turned back?

Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.

whom Yahweh of hosts blessed, saying, "May Egypt my people be blessed, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and my inheritance, Israel."

Instead, there is gaiety and gladness,Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,Eating of meat and drinking of wine:“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”

Take your harp, walk about the city,O forgotten harlot;Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs,That you may be remembered.

But her commercial gain and her prostitute’s wages will be dedicated to the Lord; it will not be treasured or stored up, but her commercial gain will become sufficient food and stately clothing for those who dwell (minister) in the presence of the Lord.

The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.

Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.

To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.

So the word of the Lord to them will be,“Order on order, order on order,Line on line, line on line,A little here, a little there,”That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive.

For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.

Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:

Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:

And he will let it be broken as a potter's vessel is broken: it will be smashed to bits without mercy; so that there will not be a bit in which one may take fire from the fireplace, or water from the spring.

And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won't be hidden anymore, but your eyes will see your teachers;

And he will give rain for your seed, so that you may put it in the earth; and you will have bread from the produce of the earth, good and more than enough for your needs: in that day the cattle will get their food in wide grass-lands.

The sinners in Zion are full of fear; the haters of God are shaking with wonder. Who among us may keep his place before the burning fire? who among us may see the eternal burnings?

Its nobles—there is no one thereWhom they may proclaim king—And all its princes will be nothing.

And a highway will be there; its name will be, The Holy Way; the unclean and the sinner may not go over it, and those who go on it will not be turned out of the way by the foolish.

And if you say to me, Our hope is in the Lord our God; is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, saying to Judah and Jerusalem that worship may only be given before this altar?

How then may you put to shame the least of my master's servants? and you have put your hope in Egypt for war-carriages and horsemen:

But Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?

Don't listen to Hezekiah!' For this is what the king of Assyria says, 'Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.

Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.

O sovereign master, your decrees can give men life; may years of life be restored to me. Restore my health and preserve my life.'

Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of pressed figs and apply it to his infected skin, so that he may recover.”

The wise workman makes selection of the mulberry-tree of the offering, a wood which will not become soft; so that the image may be fixed to it and not be moved.

Youths may faint and grow weary,and young men stumble and fall,

That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.

Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.

Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.

Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that sheweth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that heareth your words.

Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.

Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.

Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

the people whom I formed for myself and so that they may speak my praise."

Take Me to court; let us argue our case together.State your case, so that you may be vindicated.

They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.

The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.

Then it will be used to make a fire, so that a man may get warm; he has the oven heated with it and makes bread: he makes a god with it, to which he gives worship: he makes a pictured image out of it, and goes down on his face before it.

They have no knowledge, and understand not; for he hath plastered their eyes, that they may not see; and their hearts, that they may not understand.

The Lord says to the man of his selection, to Cyrus, whom I have taken by the right hand, putting down nations before him, and taking away the arms of kings; making the doors open before him, so that the ways into the towns may not be shut;

I will give you the treasures of darknessand riches from secret places,so that you may know that I, Yahweh,the God of Israel call you by your name.

That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.

Distil, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, that it may bring forth salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up together; I, Jehovah, have created it.

Cursed is he who has an argument with his Maker, the pot which has an argument with the Potter! Will the wet earth say to him who is working with it, What are you doing, that your work has nothing by which it may be gripped?

Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have salvation, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other.

To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?

And they lift it on their shoulders, carry it, set it up in its place, and there it stands. It cannot move from that spot. One may even call to it, but it cannot answer nor save him from his distress.

Because of this evil will come on you, which may not be turned away for any price: and trouble will overtake you, from which no money will give salvation: destruction will come on you suddenly, without your knowledge.

Stand, I pray thee, in thy charms, And in the multitude of thy sorceries, In which thou hast laboured from thy youth, It may be thou art able to profit, It may be thou dost terrify!

Truly, they have become like dry stems, they have been burned in the fire; they are not able to keep themselves safe from the power of the flame: it is not a coal for warming them, or a fire by which a man may be seated.

“For the sake of My Name I refrain from My wrath,And for My praise I restrain Myself from you,So that I do not cut you off.

He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My ServantTo raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;I will also make You a light of the nationsSo that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”