Ecclesiastes 4 Cross References - BBE

¹ And again I saw all the cruel things which are done under the sun; there was the weeping of those who have evil done to them, and they had no comforter: and from the hands of the evil-doers there went out power, but they had no comforter. ² So my praise was for the dead who have gone to their death, more than for the living who still have life. ³ Yes, happier than the dead or the living seemed he who has not ever been, who has not seen the evil which is done under the sun. ⁴ And I saw that the cause of all the work and of everything which is done well was man's envy of his neighbour. This again is to no purpose and a desire for wind. ⁵ The foolish man, folding his hands, takes the flesh of his body for food. ⁶ One hand full of rest is better than two hands full of trouble and desire for wind. ⁷ Then I came back, and I saw an example of what is to no purpose under the sun. ⁸ It is one who is by himself, without a second, and without son or brother; but there is no end to all his work, and he has never enough of wealth. For whom, then, am I working and keeping myself from pleasure? This again is to no purpose, and a bitter work. ⁹ Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their work. ¹⁰ And if one has a fall, the other will give him a hand; but unhappy is the man who is by himself, because he has no helper. ¹¹ So again, if two are sleeping together they are warm, but how may one be warm by himself? ¹² And two attacked by one would be safe, and three cords twisted together are not quickly broken. ¹³ A young man who is poor and wise is better than a king who is old and foolish and will not be guided by the wisdom of others. ¹⁴ Because out of a prison the young man comes to be king, though by birth he was only a poor man in the kingdom. ¹⁵ I saw all the living under the sun round the young man who was to be ruler in place of the king. ¹⁶ There was no end of all the people, of all those whose head he was, but they who come later will have no delight in him. This again is to no purpose and desire for wind.

¹⁸ And the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be by himself: I will make one like himself as a help to him

⁴ And Abel gave an offering of the young lambs of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord was pleased with Abel's offering; ⁵ But in Cain and his offering he had no pleasure. And Cain was angry and his face became sad. ⁶ And the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? and why is your face sad? ⁷ If you do well, will you not have honour? and if you do wrong, sin is waiting at the door, desiring to have you, but do not let it be your master. ⁸ And Cain said to his brother, Let us go into the field: and when they were in the field, Cain made an attack on his brother Abel and put him to death.

⁸ And Cain said to his brother, Let us go into the field: and when they were in the field, Cain made an attack on his brother Abel and put him to death.

² And Abram said, What will you give me? for I have no child and this Eliezer of Damascus will have all my wealth after me. ³ And Abram said, You have given me no child, and a servant in my house will get the heritage.

² These are the generations of Jacob: Joseph, a boy seventeen years old, was looking after the flock, together with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph gave their father a bad account of them.

² These are the generations of Jacob: Joseph, a boy seventeen years old, was looking after the flock, together with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph gave their father a bad account of them. ³ Now the love which Israel had for Joseph was greater than his love for all his other children, because he got him when he was an old man: and he had a long coat made for him. ⁴ And because his brothers saw that Joseph was dearer to his father than all the others, they were full of hate for him, and would not say a kind word to him. ⁵ Now Joseph had a dream, and he gave his brothers an account of it, which made their hate greater than ever. ⁶ And he said to them, Let me give you the story of my dream. ⁷ We were in the field, getting the grain stems together, and my grain kept upright, and yours came round and went down on the earth before mine. ⁸ And his brothers said to him, Are you to be our king? will you have authority over us? And because of his dream and his words, their hate for him became greater than ever. ⁹ Then he had another dream, and gave his brothers an account of it, saying, I have had another dream: the sun and the moon and eleven stars gave honour to me. ¹⁰ And he gave word of it to his father and his brothers; but his father protesting said, What sort of a dream is this? am I and your mother and your brothers to go down on our faces to the earth before you? ¹¹ And his brothers were full of envy; but his father kept his words in mind.

¹⁴ Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they took him quickly out of prison; and when his hair had been cut and his dress changed, he came before Pharaoh.

³³ And now let Pharaoh make search for a man of wisdom and good sense, and put him in authority over the land of Egypt. ³⁴ Let Pharaoh do this, and let him put overseers over the land of Egypt to put in store a fifth part of the produce of the land in the good years. ³⁵ And let them get together all the food in those good years and make a store of grain under Pharaoh's control for the use of the towns, and let them keep it. ³⁶ And let that food be kept in store for the land till the seven bad years which are to come in Egypt; so that the land may not come to destruction through need of food. ³⁷ And this seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants. ³⁸ Then Pharaoh said to his servants, Where may we get such a man as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God? ³⁹ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Seeing that God has made all this clear to you, there is no other man of such wisdom and good sense as you: ⁴⁰ You, then, are to be over my house, and all my people will be ruled by your word: only as king will I be greater than you. ⁴¹ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have put you over all the land of Egypt. ⁴² Then Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and he had him clothed with the best linen, and put a chain of gold round his neck; ⁴³ And he made him take his seat in the second of his carriages; and they went before him crying, Make way! So he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. ⁴⁴ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh; and without your order no man may do anything in all the land of Egypt.

¹³ And they gave the children of Israel even harder work to do: ¹⁴ And made their lives bitter with hard work, making building-material and bricks, and doing all sorts of work in the fields under the hardest conditions.

¹⁶ When you are looking after the Hebrew women in childbirth, if it is a son you are to put him to death; but if it is a daughter, she may go on living.

²² And Pharaoh gave orders to all his people, saying, Every son who comes to birth is to be put into the river, but every daughter may go on living.

²³ Now after a long time the king of Egypt came to his end: and the children of Israel were crying in their grief under the weight of their work, and their cry for help came to the ears of God. ²⁴ And at the sound of their weeping the agreement which God had made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob came to his mind.

¹⁴ And the Lord was angry with Moses, and said, Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? To my knowledge he is good at talking. And now he is coming out to you: and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart. ¹⁵ Let him give ear to your voice, and you will put my words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his, teaching you what you have to do. ¹⁶ And he will do the talking for you to the people: he will be to you as a mouth and you will be to him as God.

¹⁶ They give us no dry stems and they say to us, Make bricks: and they give your servants blows; but it is your people who are in the wrong. ¹⁷ But he said, You have no love for work: that is why you say, Let us go and make an offering to the Lord. ¹⁸ Go now, get back to your work; no dry stems will be given to you, but you are to make the full number of bricks. ¹⁹ Then the responsible men of the children of Israel saw that they were purposing evil when they said, The number of bricks which you have to make every day will be no less than before.

² Then Aaron said to them, Take off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters, and give them to me. ³ And all the people took the gold rings from their ears and gave them to Aaron. ⁴ And he took the gold from them and, hammering it with an instrument, he made it into the metal image of a young ox: and they said, This is your god, O Israel, who took you out of the land of Egypt.

²¹ And Moses said to Aaron, What did the people do to you that you let this great sin come on them?

¹⁴ I am not able by myself to take the weight of all this people, for it is more than my strength.

¹⁹ For I was full of fear because of the wrath of the Lord which was burning against you, with your destruction in view. But again the Lord's ear was open to my prayer. ²⁰ And the Lord, in his wrath, would have put Aaron to death: and I made prayer for Aaron at the same time.

³³ The fruit of your land and all the work of your hands will be food for a nation which is strange to you and to your fathers; you will only be crushed down and kept under for ever:

⁴⁸ For this cause you will become servants to those whom the Lord your God will send against you, without food and drink and clothing, and in need of all things: and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck till he has put an end to you.

³ Then the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord; for he had nine hundred iron war-carriages, and for twenty years he was very cruel to the children of Israel.

¹⁹ If then you have done what is true and upright to Jerubbaal and his family this day, may you have joy in Abimelech, and may he have joy in you; ²⁰ But if not, may fire come out from Abimelech, burning up the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo; and may fire come out from the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo, for the destruction of Abimelech.

⁷ And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon. ⁸ And that year the children of Israel were crushed under their yoke; for eighteen years all the children of Israel on the other side of Jordan, in the land of the Amorites which is in Gilead, were cruelly crushed down.

¹² The Lord give you a reward for what you have done, and may a full reward be given to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take cover.

⁸ And Saul was very angry and this saying was unpleasing to him; and he said, They have given David credit for tens of thousands, and to me for only thousands: what more is there for him but the kingdom? ⁹ And from that day Saul was looking with envy on David.

¹⁴ And in all his undertakings David did wisely; and the Lord was with him. ¹⁵ And when Saul saw how wisely he did, he was in fear of him. ¹⁶ But David was loved by all Israel and Judah, for he went out and came in before them.

²⁹ And Saul's fear of David became all the greater, and he went on hating him, day by day. ³⁰ Then the rulers of the Philistines went out to war: and whenever they went out, David did more wisely than all the other servants of Saul, so that his name became greatly honoured.

¹⁶ And Saul's son Jonathan went to David in Horesh, and made his hands strong in God;

²⁷ And when the days of weeping were past, David sent for her, and took her into his house, and she became his wife and gave him a son. But the Lord was not pleased with the thing David had done.

⁷ And Nathan said to David, You are that man. The Lord God of Israel says, I made you king over Israel, putting holy oil on you, and I kept you safe from the hands of Saul; ⁸ I gave you your master's daughter and your master's wives for yourself, and I gave you the daughters of Israel and Judah; and if that had not been enough, I would have given you such and such things. ⁹ Why then have you had no respect for the word of the Lord, doing what is evil in his eyes? You have put Uriah the Hittite to death with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife; you have put him to death with the sword of the children of Ammon. ¹⁰ So now the sword will never be turned away from your family; because you have had no respect for me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. ¹¹ The Lord says, From those of your family I will send evil against you, and before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to your neighbour, and he will take your wives to his bed by the light of this sun. ¹² You did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel and in the light of the sun. ¹³ And David said to Nathan, Great is my sin against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, The Lord has put away your sin; death will not come on you. ¹⁴ But still, because you have had no respect for the Lord, death will certainly overtake the child who has newly come to birth.

⁶ And I had two sons, and the two of them had a fight in the field, and there was no one to come between them, and one with a blow put the other to death.

⁶ And this Absalom did to everyone in Israel who came to the king to have his cause judged: so Absalom, like a thief, took away the hearts of the men of Israel.

¹² And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, one of David's helpers, from Giloh his town, while he was making the offerings. And the design against David became strong, for more and more people were joined to Absalom. ¹³ And one came to David and said, The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom.

⁷ And the people of Israel were overcome there by the servants of David, and there was a great destruction that day, and twenty thousand men were put to the sword. ⁸ And the fighting went on over all the face of the country: and the woods were responsible for more deaths than the sword.

⁹ And through all the tribes of Israel the people were having arguments, saying, The king made us safe from the hands of those who were against us and made us free from the hands of the Philistines; and now he has gone in flight from the land, because of Absalom.

⁹ After him was Eleazar, the son of Dodai the Ahohite, one of the three great fighters, who was with David in Pas-dammim when the Philistines came together there for the fight; and when the men of Israel had gone in flight,

¹⁶ And the three men, forcing their way through the Philistine army, got water from the water-hole of Beth-lehem, by the doorway into the town, and took it back to David: but he would not take it, but, draining it out, made an offering of it to the Lord.

¹⁸ And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the thirty. He put to death three hundred with his spear, and he got for himself a name among the thirty. ¹⁹ Was he not the noblest of the thirty? so he was made their captain: but he was not equal to the first three.

²³ He was honoured over the rest of the thirty, but he was not equal to the first three. And David put him over the fighting men who kept him safe.

¹ Now King David was old and far on in years; and though they put covers over him, his body was cold. ² So his servants said to him, Let search be made for a young virgin for my lord the king, to take care of him and be waiting on him; and you may take her in your arms, and so my lord the king will be warm. ³ So after searching through all the land of Israel for a fair young girl, they saw Abishag the Shunammite, and took her to the king. ⁴ Now she was very beautiful; and she took care of the king, waiting on him at all times; but the king had no connection with her. ⁵ Then Adonijah, the son of Haggith, lifting himself up in pride, said, I will become king; and he made ready his carriages of war and his horsemen, with fifty runners to go before him. ⁶ Now all his life his father had never gone against him or said to him, Why have you done so? and he was a very good-looking man, and younger than Absalom. ⁷ And he had talk with Joab, the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest; and they were on his side and gave him their support.

⁴⁰ And all the people came up after him, piping with pipes, and they were glad with great joy, so that the earth was shaking with the sound.

¹⁰ And the young men of his generation said to him, This is the answer to give to the people who came to you saying, Your father put a hard yoke on us; will you make it less? say to them, My little finger is thicker than my father's body; ¹¹ If my father put a hard yoke on you, I will make it harder: my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give you blows with snakes. ¹² So all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had given orders, saying, Come back to me the third day. ¹³ And the king gave them a rough answer, giving no attention to the suggestion of the old men; ¹⁴ But giving them the answer put forward by the young men, saying, My father made your yoke hard, but I will make it harder; my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give it with snakes. ¹⁵ So the king did not give ear to the people; and this came about by the purpose of the Lord, so that what he had said by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, son of Nebat, might be effected. ¹⁶ And when all Israel saw that the king would give no attention to them, the people in answer said to the king, What part have we in David? what is our heritage in the son of Jesse? to your tents, O Israel; now see to your people, David. So Israel went away to their tents.

²⁶ And took away all the stored wealth from the house of the Lord, and from the king's house, and all the gold body-covers which Solomon had made. ²⁷ So in their place King Rehoboam had other body-covers made of brass, and gave them into the care of the captains of the armed men who were stationed at the door of the king's house.

⁸ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord, Micaiah, son of Imlah; but I have no love for him, for he is a prophet of evil to me and not of good. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

³¹ Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, ruling in Jerusalem for three months; his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ³² He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his fathers had done. ³³ And Pharaoh-necoh put him in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so that he might not be king in Jerusalem; and took from the land a tax of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. ³⁴ Then Pharaoh-necoh made Eliakim, the son of Josiah, king in place of Josiah his father, changing his name to Jehoiakim; but Jehoahaz he took away to Egypt, where he was till his death.

¹ In his days, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up and Jehoiakim was his servant for three years; then he took up arms against him. ² And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldaeans and of the Edomites and of the Moabites and of the children of Ammon; sending them against Judah for its destruction, as he had said by his servants the prophets.

⁶ So Jehoiakim went to rest with his fathers; and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place.

¹² Then Jehoiachin, king of Judah, went out to the king of Babylon, with his mother and his servants and his chiefs and his unsexed servants; and in the eighth year of his rule the king of Babylon took him.

⁷ And they put the sons of Zedekiah to death before his eyes, and then they put out his eyes, and chaining him with iron bands, took him to Babylon.

²⁷ And in the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin, king of Judah, had been taken prisoner, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the first year of his rule, took Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison; ²⁸ And said kind words to him, and put his seat higher than the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ²⁹ And his prison clothing was changed, and he was a guest at the king's table every day for the rest of his life. ³⁰ And for his food, the king gave him a regular amount every day for the rest of his life.

⁹ For the eyes of the Lord go this way and that, through all the earth, letting it be seen that he is the strong support of those whose hearts are true to him. In this you have done foolishly, for from now you will have wars. ¹⁰ Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison, burning with wrath against him because of this thing. And at the same time Asa was cruel to some of the people.

²⁰ Then the spirit of God came on Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, and, getting up before the people, he said to them, God has said, Why do you go against the orders of the Lord, so that everything goes badly for you? because you have given up the Lord, he has given you up. ²¹ But when they had made a secret design against him, he was stoned with stones, by the king's order, in the outer square of the Lord's house. ²² So King Joash did not keep in mind how good Jehoiada his father had been to him, but put his son to death. And in the hour of his death he said, May the Lord see it and take payment!

¹⁶ But while he was talking to him the king said to him, Have we made you one of the king's government? say no more, or it will be the cause of your death. Then the prophet gave up protesting, and said, It is clear to me that God's purpose is your destruction, because you have done this and have not given ear to my words.

¹ Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their countrymen the Jews. ² For there were some who said, We, our sons and our daughters, are a great number: let us get grain, so that we may have food for our needs. ³ And there were some who said, We are giving our fields and our vine-gardens and our houses for debt: let us get grain because we are in need. ⁴ And there were others who said, We have given up our fields and our vine-gardens to get money for the king's taxes. ⁵ But our flesh is the same as the flesh of our countrymen, and our children as their children: and now we are giving our sons and daughters into the hands of others, to be their servants, and some of our daughters are servants even now: and we have no power to put a stop to it; for other men have our fields and our vine-gardens.

¹⁰ Because it did not keep the doors of my mother's body shut, so that trouble might be veiled from my eyes. ¹¹ Why did death not take me when I came out of my mother's body, why did I not, when I came out, give up my last breath?

¹¹ Why did death not take me when I came out of my mother's body, why did I not, when I came out, give up my last breath? ¹² Why did the knees take me, or why the breasts that they might give me milk?

¹² Why did the knees take me, or why the breasts that they might give me milk? ¹³ For then I might have gone to my rest in quiet, and in sleep have been in peace,

¹³ For then I might have gone to my rest in quiet, and in sleep have been in peace, ¹⁴ With kings and the wise ones of the earth, who put up great houses for themselves;

¹⁴ With kings and the wise ones of the earth, who put up great houses for themselves; ¹⁵ Or with rulers who had gold, and whose houses were full of silver;

¹⁵ Or with rulers who had gold, and whose houses were full of silver; ¹⁶ Or as a child dead at birth I might never have come into existence; like young children who have not seen the light.

¹⁶ Or as a child dead at birth I might never have come into existence; like young children who have not seen the light. ¹⁷ There the passions of the evil are over, and those whose strength has come to an end have rest. ¹⁸ There the prisoners are at peace together; the voice of the overseer comes not again to their ears. ¹⁹ The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master. ²⁰ Why does he give light to him who is in trouble, and life to the bitter in soul; ²¹ To those whose desire is for death, but it comes not; who are searching for it more than for secret wealth; ²² Who are glad with great joy, and full of delight when they come to their last resting-place;

²² Who are glad with great joy, and full of delight when they come to their last resting-place; ²³ To a man whose way is veiled, and who is shut in by God? ²⁴ In place of my food I have grief, and cries of sorrow come from me like water. ²⁵ For I have a fear and it comes on me, and my heart is greatly troubled. ²⁶ I have no peace, no quiet, and no rest; nothing but pain comes on me.

³ Truly, you have been a helper to others, and you have made feeble hands strong; ⁴ He who was near to falling has been lifted up by your words, and you have given strength to bent knees.

¹¹ Lifting up those who are low, and putting the sad in a safe place;

²⁹ Let your minds be changed, and do not have an evil opinion of me; yes, be changed, for my righteousness is still in me.

¹⁸ Why then did you make me come out of my mother's body? It would have been better for me to have taken my last breath, and for no eye to have seen me, ¹⁹ And for me to have been as if I had not been; to have been taken from my mother's body straight to my last resting-place.

¹⁴ I will take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand.

⁴ It would not be hard for me to say such things if your souls were in my soul's place; joining words together against you, and shaking my head at you:

²¹ Have pity on me, have pity on me, O my friends! for the hand of God is on me. ²² Why are you cruel to me, like God, for ever saying evil against me?

⁷ They take their rest at night without clothing, and have no cover in the cold. ⁸ They are wet with the rain of the mountains, and get into the cracks of the rock for cover. ⁹ The child without a father is forced from its mother's breast, and they take the young children of the poor for debt. ¹⁰ Others go about without clothing, and though they have no food, they get in the grain from the fields. ¹¹ Between the lines of olive-trees they make oil; though they have no drink, they are crushing out the grapes. ¹² From the town come sounds of pain from those who are near death, and the soul of the wounded is crying out for help; but God does not take note of their prayer.

⁹ Because the hand of the cruel is hard on them, men are making sounds of grief; they are crying out for help because of the arm of the strong.

⁹ He keeps himself in a secret place like a lion in his hole, waiting to put his hands on the poor man, and pulling him into his net. ¹⁰ The upright are crushed and made low, and the feeble are overcome by his strong ones.

⁵ Because of the crushing of the poor and the weeping of those in need, now will I come to his help, says the Lord; I will give him the salvation which he is desiring.

¹⁶ The little which the good man has is better than the wealth of evil-doers.

⁶ Truly, every man goes on his way like an image; he is troubled for no purpose: he makes a great store of wealth, and has no knowledge of who will get it.

³ My tears have been my food day and night, while they keep saying to me, Where is your God?

⁹ I will say to God my Rock, Why have you let me go from your memory? why do I go in sorrow because of the attacks of my haters?

⁶ And I said, If only I had wings like a dove! for then I would go in flight from here and be at rest. ⁷ I would go wandering far away, living in the waste land. Selah. ⁸ I would quickly take cover from the driving storm and from the violent wind. ⁹ Send destruction on them, O Lord, make a division of tongues among them: for I have seen fighting and violent acts in the town. ¹⁰ By day and night they go round the town, on the walls; trouble and sorrow are in the heart of it. ¹¹ Evil is there; cruel rule and deceit are ever in the streets.

²⁰ My heart is broken by bitter words, I am full of grief; I made a search for some to have pity on me, but there was no one; I had no comforter.

³³ So their days were wasted like a breath, and their years in trouble.

⁵ You have given them the bread of weeping for food; for their drink you have given them sorrow in great measure.

⁸ My haters say evil of me all day; those who are violent against me make use of my name as a curse. ⁹ I have had dust for bread and my drink has been mixed with weeping:

⁷ He takes the poor man out of the dust, lifting him up from his low position; ⁸ To give him a place among the rulers, even with the rulers of his people.

⁴ Looking to my right side, I saw no man who was my friend: I had no safe place; no one had any care for my soul.

¹⁰ A little sleep, a little rest, a little folding of the hands in sleep: ¹¹ Then loss will come on you like an outlaw, and your need like an armed man

¹⁷ The man who has mercy will be rewarded, but the cruel man is the cause of trouble to himself.

²⁷ He who is slow in his work does not go in search of food; but the ready worker gets much wealth.

⁴ The hater of work does not get his desires, but the soul of the hard workers will be made fat.

¹⁶ Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great wealth together with trouble. ¹⁷ Better is a simple meal where love is, than a fat ox and hate with it.

⁸ Better is a little with righteousness, than great wealth with wrongdoing.

¹ Better a bit of dry bread in peace, than a house full of feasting and violent behaviour.

¹ Better is the poor man whose ways are upright, than the man of wealth whose ways are twisted.

⁷ All the brothers of the poor man are against him: how much more do his friends go far from him! (UNTRANSLATED TEXT)

⁴ The hater of work will not do his ploughing because of the winter; so at the time of grain-cutting he will be requesting food and will get nothing.

³³ A little sleep, a little rest, a little folding of the hands in sleep: ³⁴ So loss will come on you like an outlaw, and your need like an armed man.

⁴ Wrath is cruel, and angry feeling an overflowing stream; but who does not give way before envy?

¹⁷ Iron makes iron sharp; so a man makes sharp his friend.

²⁰ The underworld and Abaddon are never full, and the eyes of man have never enough.

³ A man of wealth who is cruel to the poor is like a violent rain causing destruction of food.

⁶ Better is the poor man whose ways are upright, than the man of wealth whose ways are not straight.

¹⁵ Like a loud-voiced lion and a wandering bear, is an evil ruler over a poor people. ¹⁶ The prince who has no sense is a cruel ruler; but he who has no desire to get profit for himself will have long life.

⁸ All things are full of weariness; man may not give their story: the eye has never enough of its seeing, or the ear of its hearing.

¹³ And I gave my heart to searching out in wisdom all things which are done under heaven: it is a hard thing which God has put on the sons of men to do. ¹⁴ I have seen all the works which are done under the sun; all is to no purpose, and desire for wind.

¹¹ Then I saw all the works which my hands had made, and everything I had been working to do; and I saw that all was to no purpose and desire for wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

¹⁷ So I was hating life, because everything under the sun was evil to me: all is to no purpose and desire for wind.

²¹ Because there is a man whose work has been done with wisdom, with knowledge, and with an expert hand; but one who has done nothing for it will have it for his heritage. This again is to no purpose and a great evil.

²³ 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.

²⁶ To the man with whom he is pleased, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of getting goods together and storing up wealth, to give to him in whom God has pleasure. This again is to no purpose and desire for wind.

¹⁶ And again, I saw under the sun, in the place of the judges, that evil was there; and in the place of righteousness, that evil was there.

¹ And again I saw all the cruel things which are done under the sun; there was the weeping of those who have evil done to them, and they had no comforter: and from the hands of the evil-doers there went out power, but they had no comforter.

⁹ Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their work. ¹⁰ And if one has a fall, the other will give him a hand; but unhappy is the man who is by himself, because he has no helper. ¹¹ So again, if two are sleeping together they are warm, but how may one be warm by himself? ¹² And two attacked by one would be safe, and three cords twisted together are not quickly broken.

¹⁶ There was no end of all the people, of all those whose head he was, but they who come later will have no delight in him. This again is to no purpose and desire for wind.

⁸ If you see the poor under a cruel yoke, and law and right being violently overturned in a country, be not surprised, because one authority is keeping watch on another and there are higher than they.

¹⁰ He who has a love for silver never has enough silver, or he who has love for wealth, enough profit. This again is to no purpose.

³ If a man has a hundred children, and his life is long so that the days of his years are great in number, but his soul takes no pleasure in good, and he is not honoured at his death; I say that a birth before its time is better than he. ⁴ In wind it came and to the dark it will go, and with the dark will its name be covered. ⁵ Yes, it saw not the sun, and it had no knowledge; it is better with this than with the other.

⁹ What the eyes see is better than the wandering of desire. This is to no purpose and a desire for wind.

¹¹ There are words without number for increasing what is to no purpose, but what is man profited by them?

⁷ The wise are troubled by the ways of the cruel, and the giving of money is the destruction of the heart.

⁴ For him who is joined to all the living there is hope; a living dog is better than a dead lion. ⁵ The living are conscious that death will come to them, but the dead are not conscious of anything, and they no longer have a reward, because there is no memory of them. ⁶ Their love and their hate and their envy are now ended; and they have no longer a part for ever in anything which is done under the sun.

¹⁵ Now there was in the town a poor, wise man, and he, by his wisdom, kept the town safe. But no one had any memory of that same poor man. ¹⁶ Then I said, Wisdom is better than strength, but the poor man's wisdom is not respected, and his words are not given a hearing.

⁷ For the vine-garden of the Lord of armies is the people of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of his delight: and he was looking for upright judging, and there was blood; for righteousness, and there was a cry for help. ⁸ Cursed are those who are joining house to house, and putting field to field, till there is no more living-space for any but themselves in all the land!

²⁰ On the right a man was cutting off bits and was still in need; on the left a man took a meal but had not enough; no man had pity on his brother; every man was making a meal of the flesh of his neighbour.

³ Make strong the feeble hands, give support to the shaking knees. ⁴ Say to those who are full of fear, Be strong and take heart: see, your God will give punishment; the reward of God will come; he himself will come to be your saviour.

¹⁹ And no one takes note, no one has enough knowledge or wisdom to say, I have put part of it in the fire, and made bread on it; I have had a meal of the flesh cooked with it: and am I now to make the rest of it into a false god? am I to go down on my face before a bit of wood? ²⁰ As for him whose food is the dust of a dead fire, he has been turned from the way by a twisted mind, so that he is unable to keep himself safe by saying, What I have here in my hand is false.

²³ And I will put it into the hand of your cruel masters, and of those whose yoke has been hard on you; who have said to your soul, Down on your face! so that we may go over you: and you have given your backs like the earth, even like the street, for them to go over.

² Why do you give your money for what is not bread, and the fruit of your work for what will not give you pleasure? Give ear to me, so that your food may be good, and you may have the best in full measure.

³ And let not the man from a strange country, who has been joined to the Lord, say, The Lord will certainly put a division between me and his people: and let not the unsexed man say, See, I am a dry tree. ⁴ For the Lord says, As for the unsexed who keep my Sabbaths, and give their hearts to pleasing me, and keep their agreement with me: ⁵ I will give to them in my house, and inside my walls, a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an eternal name which will not be cut off.

⁷ Their feet go quickly to evil, and they take delight in the death of the upright; their thoughts are thoughts of sin; wasting and destruction are in their ways.

¹³ We have gone against the Lord, and been false to him, turning away from our God, our words have been uncontrolled, and in our hearts are thoughts of deceit. ¹⁴ And the right is turned back, and righteousness is far away: for good faith is not to be seen in the public places, and upright behaviour may not come into the town. ¹⁵ Yes, faith is gone; and he whose heart is turned from evil comes into the power of the cruel: and the Lord saw it, and he was angry that there was no one to take up their cause.

² If only I had in the waste land a night's resting-place for travellers, so that I might go away, far from my people! for they are all untrue, a band of false men. ³ Their tongues are bent like a bow to send out false words: they have become strong in the land, but not for good faith: they go on from evil to evil, and they have no knowledge of me, says the Lord.

¹⁷ Because he did not put me to death before my birth took place: so my mother's body would have been my last resting-place, and she would have been with child for ever. ¹⁸ Why did I come from my mother's body to see pain and sorrow, so that my days might be wasted with shame?

² She is sorrowing bitterly in the night, and her face is wet with weeping; among all her lovers she has no comforter: all her friends have been false to her, they have become her haters.

⁹ In her skirts were her unclean ways; she gave no thought to her end; and her fall has been a wonder; she has no comforter: see her sorrow, O Lord; for the attacker is lifted up.

²⁰ Our breath of life, he on whom the holy oil was put, was taken in their holes; of whom we said, Under his shade we will be living among the nations.

¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answering Nebuchadnezzar the king, said, There is no need for us to give you an answer to this question. ¹⁷ If our God, whose servants we are, is able to keep us safe from the burning and flaming fire, and from your hands, O King, he will keep us safe.

³¹ While the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice came down from heaven, saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is said: The kingdom has gone from you:

⁵ A curse on the cruel and false one! the man full of pride, who never has enough; who makes his desires wide as the underworld! he is like death; he is never full, but he makes all nations come to him, getting all peoples together to himself. ⁶ Will not all these take up a word of shame against him and a bitter saying against him, and say, A curse on him who goes on taking what is not his and is weighted down with the property of debtors! ⁷ Will not your creditors suddenly be moved against you, and your troublers get up from their sleep, and you will be to them like goods taken in war? ⁸ Because you have taken their goods from great nations, all the rest of the peoples will take your goods from you; because of men's blood and violent acts against the land and the town and all who are living in it. ⁹ A curse on him who gets evil profits for his family, so that he may put his resting-place on high and be safe from the hand of the wrongdoer!

¹⁴ And the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, ruler of Judah, was moved by the Lord, as was the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of armies, their God.

⁶ But my words and my orders, which I gave to my servants the prophets, have they not overtaken your fathers? and turning back they said, As it was the purpose of the Lord of armies to do to us, in reward for our ways and our doings, so has he done.

¹³ And this again you do: covering the altar of the Lord with weeping and with grief, so that he gives no more thought to the offering, and does not take it with pleasure from your hand.

⁵ And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who have been untrue in married life, against those who take false oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of armies.

¹⁸ Then you will again see how the upright man is different from the sinner, and the servant of God from him who is not.

²⁸ Come to me, all you who are troubled and weighted down with care, and I will give you rest.

¹⁹ But it will be hard for women who are with child and for those with babies at the breast in those days.

⁵⁶ But all this has taken place so that the writings of the prophets might come true. Then all his disciples went from him in flight.

¹⁸ For he saw that for envy they had given him up.

⁷ And he gave orders to the twelve, and sent them out two by two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits;

²⁰ But God said to him, You foolish one, tonight I will take your soul from you, and who then will be the owner of all the things which you have got together?

³¹ Simon, Simon, Satan has made a request to have you, so that he may put you to the test as grain is tested: ³² But I have made prayer for you, that your faith may not go from you: and when you are turned again, make your brothers strong.

²⁹ For the days are coming in which they will say, Happy are those who have had no children, whose bodies have never given birth, whose breasts have never given milk.

³⁶ He who does the cutting now has his reward; he is getting together fruit for eternal life, so that he who did the planting and he who gets in the grain may have joy together.

⁹ And the brothers, moved with envy against Joseph, gave him to the Egyptians for money: but God was with him,

² And while they were doing the Lord's work, and going without food, the Holy Spirit said, Let Barnabas and Saul be given to me for the special work for which they have been marked out by me.

³⁹ And there was a sharp argument between them, so that they were parted from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and went by ship to Cyprus; ⁴⁰ But Paul took Silas and went away with the blessing of the brothers.

¹⁸ But now God has put every one of the parts in the body as it was pleasing to him. ¹⁹ And if they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ But now they are all different parts, but one body. ²¹ And the eye may not say to the hand, I have no need of you: or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

¹¹ But when Cephas came to Antioch, I made a protest against him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. ¹² For before certain men came from James, he did take food with the Gentiles: but when they came, he went back and made himself separate, fearing those who were of the circumcision. ¹³ And the rest of the Jews went after him, so that even Barnabas was overcome by their false ways. ¹⁴ But when I saw that they were not living uprightly in agreement with the true words of the good news, I said to Cephas before them all, If you, being a Jew, are living like the Gentiles, and not like the Jews, how will you make the Gentiles do the same as the Jews?

¹ Brothers, if a man is taken in any wrongdoing, you who are of the Spirit will put such a one right in a spirit of love; keeping watch on yourself, for fear that you yourself may be tested.

³ Taking care to keep the harmony of the Spirit in the yoke of peace.

¹⁸ So then, give comfort to one another with these words.

¹¹ So then, go on comforting and building up one another, as you have been doing.

¹⁶ At my first meeting with my judges, no one took my part, but all went away from me. May it not be put to their account. ¹⁷ But the Lord was by my side and gave me strength; so that through me the news might be given out in full measure, and all the Gentiles might give ear: and I was taken out of the mouth of the lion.

⁵ Or does it seem to you that it is for nothing that the holy Writings say, The spirit which God put into our hearts has a strong desire for us?

⁴ See, the money which you falsely kept back from the workers cutting the grass in your field, is crying out against you; and the cries of those who took in your grain have come to the ears of the Lord of armies.

¹⁶ Because everything in the world, the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but of the world.

¹² Not being of the Evil One like Cain, who put his brother to death. And why did he put him to death? Because his works were evil and his brother's works were good.

⁸ Keep watch over yourselves, so that you do not make our work of no effect, but may get your full reward.