Ecclesiastes 9:5–6

¹⁴They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

¹¹There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

⁵For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

¹⁰Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.

¹¹Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?

¹²Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

²⁷And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

²¹His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

¹⁵Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

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.

¹⁰And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.

¹⁶Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.

⁸The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.

⁹As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.

¹⁰He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

²¶ It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.

²³For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

³Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.

⁴His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

¹²For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?

¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.

¹⁸There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

²⁰Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child’s life.

¹⁸¶ Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

¹⁹And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.

²⁰Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.

²¹For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.

²²For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?

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

⁸Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

²⁸The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.