Ecclesiastes 1:6–15

⁸The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

⁵As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

¹⁷How thy garments are warm, when he quieteth the earth by the south wind?

⁹Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north.

²⁵For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.

²⁹He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.

¹³And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete.

¹⁴But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon.

¹⁵And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive.

⁴¶ But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.

²⁴¶ Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

²⁷And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

¹⁰And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,

¹¹And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

⁶Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.

⁷At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.

⁸They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.

⁹Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.

²⁰Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

²⁸¶ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

⁸There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.

¹¹Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

²⁶For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

¹SO I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

²Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.

³Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

⁴¶ Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

¹⁰He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.

¹¹When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?

²⁴That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?

²⁵I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.

⁶Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

¹⁵The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:

¹⁶The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.

⁵My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

¹⁶They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

¹⁷For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

²²For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

²³And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

¹⁵That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

¹⁰That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.

¹AND I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

¹²¶ And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.

¹⁰Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.

¹⁹Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

²²¶ How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.

¹BUT there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

⁵And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

⁵¹¶ Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

²⁶And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

²⁷They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

²⁸Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

²⁹But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

³⁰Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

³⁰And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

³¹Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

³²Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

⁸Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

¹²Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

¹⁴For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judæa are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:

¹⁵Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:

¹⁶Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

¹⁶For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.

⁶O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.

⁵For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

⁹Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

²²Let 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.

²³Shew 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.

²⁴Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.

²⁵I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth clay.

²⁶Who 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.

¹THE words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

¹SO king Solomon was king over all Israel.

²And these were the princes which he had; Azariah the son of Zadok the priest,

³Elihoreph and Ahiah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder.

⁴And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the host: and Zadok and Abiathar were the priests:

⁵And Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers: and Zabud the son of Nathan was principal officer, and the king’s friend:

⁶And Ahishar was over the household: and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the tribute.

⁷¶ And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, which provided victuals for the king and his household: each man his month in a year made provision.

⁸And these are their names: The son of Hur, in mount Ephraim:

⁹The son of Dekar, in Makaz, and in Shaalbim, and Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan:

¹⁰The son of Hesed, in Aruboth; to him pertained Sochoh, and all the land of Hepher:

¹¹The son of Abinadab, in all the region of Dor; which had Taphath the daughter of Solomon to wife:

¹²Baana the son of Ahilud; to him pertained Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is by Zartanah beneath Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, even unto the place that is beyond Jokneam:

¹³The son of Geber, in Ramoth-gilead; to him pertained the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; to him also pertained the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, threescore great cities with walls and brasen bars:

¹⁴Ahinadab the son of Iddo had Mahanaim:

¹⁵Ahimaaz was in Naphtali; he also took Basmath the daughter of Solomon to wife:

¹⁶Baanah the son of Hushai was in Asher and in Aloth:

¹⁷Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar:

¹⁸Shimei the son of Elah, in Benjamin:

¹⁹Geber the son of Uri was in the country of Gilead, in the country of Sihon king of the Amorites, and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only officer which was in the land.

¹⁰I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

¹⁹In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

¹⁵Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.

¹⁶¶ When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)

¹⁷Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

¹⁷And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.

¹²And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

²⁵I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:

²³For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

²⁶For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

⁴¶ Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

⁹All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.

¹THROUGH desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.

¹⁵The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.

²So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;

³Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

⁴If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

²⁶My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

⁷Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

²The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.

¹¹Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

¹⁷Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

²⁶For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

⁹¶ Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

¹⁷And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.

¹⁸For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

⁴¶ Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

⁵Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

⁶Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

³⁰And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.

³¹For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all nations round about.

³²And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five.

¹²For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.

¹³Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?

²⁷Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

¹⁴I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

⁴Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:

⁶And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.

²⁹When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only:

³⁷¶ Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?

³⁵And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?