'One' in the Bible

For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity.

Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them.

But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun.

One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind.

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.

For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?

And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.

If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight; for one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them.

Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice and does not enjoy good things—do not all go to one place?”

It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise manThan for one to listen to the song of fools.

In the day of prosperity be happy,But in the day of adversity consider—God has made the one as well as the otherSo that man will not discover anything that will be after him.

It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.

And I discovered more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

“Behold, I have discovered this,” says the Preacher, “adding one thing to another to find an explanation,

which I am still seeking but have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these.

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

When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on the earth (even though one should never sleep day or night),

It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear.

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.

But there was found in it a poor wise man and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one will arise at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song will sing softly.

The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd.

“Tell me, O you whom my soul loves,Where do you pasture your flock,Where do you make it lie down at noon?For why should I be like one who veils herselfBeside the flocks of your companions?”

“My beloved responded and said to me,‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,And come along.

‘The fig tree has ripened its figs,And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,And come along!’”

“Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn ewesWhich have come up from their washing,All of which bear twins,And not one among them has lost her young.

“I was asleep but my heart was awake.A voice! My beloved was knocking:‘Open to me, my sister, my darling,My dove, my perfect one!For my head is drenched with dew,My locks with the damp of the night.’

“Your teeth are like a flock of ewesWhich have come up from their washing,All of which bear twins,And not one among them has lost her young.

But my dove, my perfect one, is unique:She is her mother’s only daughter;She is the pure child of the one who bore her.The maidens saw her and called her blessed,The queens and the concubines also, and they praised her, saying,

“Oh that you were like a brother to meWho nursed at my mother’s breasts.If I found you outdoors, I would kiss you;No one would despise me, either.

“I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers;Then I became in his eyes as one who finds peace.

“Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;He entrusted the vineyard to caretakers.Each one was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.

Alas, sinful nation,People weighed down with iniquity,Offspring of evildoers,Sons who act corruptly!They have abandoned the Lord,They have despised the Holy One of Israel,They have turned away from Him.

Therefore the Lord God of hosts,The Mighty One of Israel, declares,“Ah, I will be relieved of My adversariesAnd avenge Myself on My foes.

And the people will be oppressed,Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor;The youth will storm against the elderAnd the inferior against the honorable.

For seven women will take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach!”

“For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine,And a homer of seed will yield but an ephah of grain.”

Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw nearAnd come to pass, that we may know it!”

Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubbleAnd dry grass collapses into the flame,So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust;For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hostsAnd despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

No one in it is weary or stumbles,None slumbers or sleeps;Nor is the belt at its waist undone,Nor its sandal strap broken.

Its roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions;It growls as it seizes the preyAnd carries it off with no one to deliver it.

And it will growl over it in that day like the roaring of the sea.If one looks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress;Even the light is darkened by its clouds.

And one called out to another and said,“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,The whole earth is full of His glory.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.

Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their young men,Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows;For every one of them is godless and an evildoer,And every mouth is speaking foolishness.In spite of all this, His anger does not turn awayAnd His hand is still stretched out.

And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest,And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth;And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.”

Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it?Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it?That would be like a club wielding those who lift it,Or like a rod lifting him who is not wood.

And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame,And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day.

Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord God of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land.

He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe,And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.

Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

They will be terrified,Pains and anguish will take hold of them;They will writhe like a woman in labor,They will look at one another in astonishment,Their faces aflame.

And it will be that like a hunted gazelle,Or like sheep with none to gather them,They will each turn to his own people,And each one flee to his own land.

“How then will one answer the messengers of the nation?That the Lord has founded Zion,And the afflicted of His people will seek refuge in it.”

“The cities of Aroer are forsaken;They will be for flocks to lie down in,And there will be no one to frighten them.

It will be even like the reaper gathering the standing grain,As his arm harvests the ears,Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grainIn the valley of Rephaim.

In that day man will have regard for his MakerAnd his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the Lord of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction.

A harsh vision has been shown to me;The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys.Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media;I have made an end of all the groaning she has caused.

“Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.”And one said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;And all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”

The oracle concerning Edom.One keeps calling to me from Seir,“Watchman, how far gone is the night?Watchman, how far gone is the night?”

“Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder,When he opens no one will shut,When he shuts no one will open.

Now in that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:

From the ends of the earth we hear songs, “Glory to the Righteous One,”But I say, “Woe to me! Woe to me! Alas for me!The treacherous deal treacherously,And the treacherous deal very treacherously.”

“Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter,The one that remains faithful.

The way of the righteous is smooth;O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.

In that day the Lord will start His threshing from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel.

And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,Which is at the head of the fertile valley,Will be like the first-ripe fig prior to summer,Which one sees,And as soon as it is in his hand,He swallows it.

The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.”

The afflicted also will increase their gladness in the Lord,And the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

Who cause a person to be indicted by a word,And ensnare him who adjudicates at the gate,And defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.

But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst,They will sanctify My name;Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of JacobAnd will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

“Get out of the way, turn aside from the path,Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,“Since you have rejected this wordAnd have put your trust in oppression and guile, and have relied on them,

For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said,“In repentance and rest you will be saved,In quietness and trust is your strength.”But you were not willing,

One thousand will flee at the threat of one man;You will flee at the threat of five,Until you are left as a flag on a mountain topAnd as a signal on a hill.

You will have songs as in the night when you keep the festival,And gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute,To go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for helpAnd rely on horses,And trust in chariots because they are manyAnd in horsemen because they are very strong,But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!

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

You will no longer see a fierce people,A people of unintelligible speech which no one comprehends,Of a stammering tongue which no one understands.

But there the majestic One, the Lord, will be for usA place of rivers and wide canalsOn which no boat with oars will go,And on which no mighty ship will pass—

And all the host of heaven will wear away,And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll;All their hosts will also wither awayAs a leaf withers from the vine,Or as one withers from the fig tree.

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

The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there,And it will hatch and gather them under its protection.Yes, the hawks will be gathered there,Every one with its kind.

Seek from the book of the Lord, and read:Not one of these will be missing;None will lack its mate.For His mouth has commanded,And His Spirit has gathered them.

How then can you repulse one official of the least of my master’s servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

“Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?And against whom have you raised your voiceAnd haughtily lifted up your eyes?Against the Holy One of Israel!

“To whom then will you liken MeThat I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on highAnd see who has created these stars,The One who leads forth their host by number,He calls them all by name;Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,Not one of them is missing.

“Who has aroused one from the eastWhom He calls in righteousness to His feet?He delivers up nations before himAnd subdues kings.He makes them like dust with his sword,As the wind-driven chaff with his bow.

Each one helps his neighborAnd says to his brother, “Be strong!”

“Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel;I will help you,” declares the Lord, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

“You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away,And the storm will scatter them;But you will rejoice in the Lord,You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

That they may see and recognize,And consider and gain insight as well,That the hand of the Lord has done this,And the Holy One of Israel has created it.

“I have aroused one from the north, and he has come;From the rising of the sun he will call on My name;And he will come upon rulers as upon mortar,Even as the potter treads clay.”