I gave you land on which you hadn’t toiled and cities that you hadn’t built. You settled in them and are enjoying produce from vineyards and olive groves that you didn’t plant.

When Hamath’s King Toi heard that David had defeated the entire army of Hadadezer,

he sent his son Joram to King David to wish him well and congratulate him on his battle and defeat of Hadadezer, because Toi was an enemy of Hadadezer. Joram brought silver, gold, and bronze objects with him.

So I have inherited months of emptiness; nights of toil have been measured out for me.

They conceive toil and give birth to sorrow; their belly establishes deceit.

Let them drink and forget their poverty and no longer remember their toil.

The Lord of heavenly forces proclaims: Babylon’s massive walls will come down, down to the ground; and its high gates will be burned to the ground. People labor in vain; nations toil for nothing but ashes!

Whether they were farmers or shepherds or laborers toiling alone in the desert, the same fate overtook them all, and they were all bound in the darkness as by a single chain.

Won’t you end up leaving behind to another what you have worked so hard for? Won’t the things you have toiled for end up being divided by lot?

They get little or no rest; they even toil in their dreams, just as they do in the day, being troubled by images in their mind, as one who escapes from war.

He said to me, “You can’t.” And I said: “Why, Lord? Or else why was I born, and why did my mother’s womb not become my tomb so that I might not see the toil of Jacob and the exhaustion of the line of Israel?”

because those who toil, toil for no reason.