²⁸ The Lord will strike you with ^(A)madness and blindness and confusion of mind, ²⁹ and you shall ^(B)grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways.^[a] And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. ^30 (C)You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. ^(D)You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. ^(E)You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. ³¹ Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you. ^32 (F)Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, ^(G)but you shall be helpless. ³³ A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, ³⁴ so that you are driven mad ^(H)by the sights that your eyes see. ³⁵ The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs ^(I)with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

³⁶ “The Lord will ^(J)bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you ^(K)nor your fathers have known. And ^(L)there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. ³⁷ And you shall become ^(M)a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away. ^38 (N)You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for ^(O)the locust shall consume it. ^39 (P)You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. ⁴⁰ You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you ^(Q)shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. ⁴¹ You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for ^(R)they shall go into captivity. ^42 (S)The cricket^[b] shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground. ^43 (T)The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. ^44 (U)He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. ^(V)He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

^45 (W)“All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.

Villages Outside Jerusalem

²⁵ And as for the villages, with their fields, some of the people of Judah lived in ^(A)Kiriath-arba and its villages, and in Dibon and its villages, and in Jekabzeel and its villages, ²⁶ and in Jeshua and in Moladah and Beth-pelet, ²⁷ in Hazar-shual, in Beersheba and its villages, ²⁸ in Ziklag, in Meconah and its villages, ²⁹ in En-rimmon, in Zorah, in Jarmuth, ³⁰ Zanoah, Adullam, and their villages, Lachish and its fields, and Azekah and its villages. So they encamped from Beersheba to ^(B)the Valley of Hinnom. ³¹ The people of Benjamin also lived from Geba onward, at Michmash, Aija, Bethel and its villages, ³² Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah, ³³ Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim, ³⁴ Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat, ³⁵ Lod, and ^(C)Ono, the valley of craftsmen. ³⁶ And certain divisions of the Levites in Judah were assigned to Benjamin.

A Vision of Four Chariots

6 Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of ^(A)bronze. ² The first chariot had ^(B)red horses, the second ^(C)black horses, ³ the third ^(D)white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled horses—all of them strong.^{[a] 4} Then I answered and said to ^(E)the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” ⁵ And the angel answered and said to me, ^(F)“These are going out to the four winds of heaven, after ^(G)presenting themselves before ^(H)the Lord of all the earth. ⁶ The chariot with the black horses goes toward ^(I)the north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward ^(J)the south country.” ⁷ When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and ^(K)patrol the earth. And he said, “Go, ^(L)patrol the earth.” ^(M)So they patrolled the earth. ⁸ Then he cried to me, “Behold, those who go toward ^(N)the north country have set my Spirit at rest in ^(O)the north country.”

The Crown and the Temple

⁹ And the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁰ “Take from the exiles ^(P)Heldai, Tobijah, and ^(Q)Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go the same day to the house of Josiah, the son of ^(R)Zephaniah. ¹¹ Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown, ^(S)and set it on the head of ^(T)Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. ¹² And say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is ^(U)the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and ^(V)he shall build the temple of the Lord. ^13 (W)It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord ^(X)and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there^[b] shall be a ^(Y)priest on his throne, ^(Z)and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”’ ¹⁴ And the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord as ^(AA)a reminder to ^(AB)Helem,^{[c] (AC)}Tobijah, ^(AD)Jedaiah, and Hen ^(AE)the son of Zephaniah.

^15 (AF)“And those who are far off shall come and ^(AG)help to build the temple of the Lord. ^(AH)And you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. ^(AI)And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

Death Comes to All

9 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, ^(A)how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are ^(B)in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. ^2 (C)It is the same for all, since ^(D)the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,^[a] to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who ^(E)swears is as he who shuns an oath. ³ This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that ^(F)the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and ^(G)madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. ⁴ But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. ⁵ For the living know that they will die, but ^(H)the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for ^(I)the memory of them is forgotten. ⁶ Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

Enjoy Life with the One You Love

⁷ Go, ^(J)eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

^8 (K)Let your garments be always white. Let not ^(L)oil be lacking on your head.

⁹ Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your ^(M)vain^[b] life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your ^(N)portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. ¹⁰ Whatever your hand finds to do, ^(O)do it with your might,^{[c] (P)}for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Wisdom Better Than Folly

^11 (Q)Again I saw that under the sun ^(R)the race is not to the swift, nor ^(S)the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and ^(T)chance ^(U)happen to them all. ¹² For man ^(V)does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and ^(W)like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are ^(X)snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.

¹³ I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. ¹⁴ There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. ¹⁵ But there was found in it ^(Y)a poor, wise man, and he by his ^(Z)wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. ¹⁶ But I say that ^(AA)wisdom is better than might, though ^(AB)the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.

¹⁷ The words of the wise heard in ^(AC)quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. ^18 (AD)Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but ^(AE)one sinner destroys much good.