Add parallel Print Page Options

The Future—Determined and Unknown

10 Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny.

Read full chapter

10 Whatever exists has already been named,(A)
    and what humanity is has been known;
no one can contend
    with someone who is stronger.

Read full chapter

32 “God is not a mortal like me,
    so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial.

Read full chapter

32 “He is not a mere mortal(A) like me that I might answer him,(B)
    that we might confront each other in court.(C)

Read full chapter

“What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator.
    Does a clay pot argue with its maker?
Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying,
    ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’
Does the pot exclaim,
    ‘How clumsy can you be?’
10 How terrible it would be if a newborn baby said to its father,
    ‘Why was I born?’
or if it said to its mother,
    ‘Why did you make me this way?’”

Read full chapter

“Woe to those who quarrel(A) with their Maker,(B)
    those who are nothing but potsherds(C)
    among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,(D)
    ‘What are you making?’(E)
Does your work say,
    ‘The potter has no hands’?(F)
10 Woe to the one who says to a father,
    ‘What have you begotten?’
or to a mother,
    ‘What have you brought to birth?’

Read full chapter

“Do you still want to argue with the Almighty?
    You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?”

Read full chapter

“Will the one who contends with the Almighty(A) correct him?(B)
    Let him who accuses God answer him!”(C)

Read full chapter

19 Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

20 No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”

Read full chapter

19 One of you will say to me:(A) “Then why does God still blame us?(B) For who is able to resist his will?”(C) 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?(D) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,(E) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”[a](F)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Romans 9:20 Isaiah 29:16; 45:9

19 I will come like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan,
    leaping on the sheep in the pasture.
I will chase Edom from its land,
    and I will appoint the leader of my choice.
For who is like me, and who can challenge me?
    What ruler can oppose my will?”

Read full chapter

19 “Like a lion(A) coming up from Jordan’s thickets(B)
    to a rich pastureland,
I will chase Edom from its land in an instant.
    Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this?
Who is like(C) me and who can challenge me?(D)
    And what shepherd(E) can stand against me?”

Read full chapter

15 What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.

Read full chapter

15 Whatever is has already been,(A)
    and what will be has been before;(B)
    and God will call the past to account.[a]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 3:15 Or God calls back the past

13 So why are you bringing a charge against him?
    Why say he does not respond to people’s complaints?

Read full chapter

13 Why do you complain to him(A)
    that he responds to no one’s words[a]?(B)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Job 33:13 Or that he does not answer for any of his actions

17 And to the man he said,

“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
    whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
    All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
    though you will eat of its grains.
19 By the sweat of your brow
    will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
    from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
    and to dust you will return.”

Read full chapter

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’(A)

“Cursed(B) is the ground(C) because of you;
    through painful toil(D) you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.(E)
18 It will produce thorns and thistles(F) for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.(G)
19 By the sweat of your brow(H)
    you will eat your food(I)
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
    and to dust you will return.”(J)

Read full chapter

History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. 10 Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. 11 We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.

Read full chapter

What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;(A)
    there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
    “Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
    it was here before our time.
11 No one remembers the former generations,(B)
    and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
    by those who follow them.(C)

Read full chapter

I say, ‘You are gods;
    you are all children of the Most High.
But you will die like mere mortals
    and fall like every other ruler.’”

Read full chapter

“I said, ‘You are “gods”;(A)
    you are all sons of the Most High.’
But you will die(B) like mere mortals;
    you will fall like every other ruler.”

Read full chapter

We are merely moving shadows,
    and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
We heap up wealth,
    not knowing who will spend it.

Read full chapter

“Surely everyone goes around(A) like a mere phantom;(B)
    in vain they rush about,(C) heaping up wealth(D)
    without knowing whose it will finally be.(E)

Read full chapter

14 “How frail is humanity!
    How short is life, how full of trouble!
We blossom like a flower and then wither.
    Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear.
Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature
    and demand an accounting from me?
Who can bring purity out of an impure person?
    No one!

Read full chapter

14 “Mortals, born of woman,(A)
    are of few days(B) and full of trouble.(C)
They spring up like flowers(D) and wither away;(E)
    like fleeting shadows,(F) they do not endure.(G)
Do you fix your eye on them?(H)
    Will you bring them[a] before you for judgment?(I)
Who can bring what is pure(J) from the impure?(K)
    No one!(L)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Job 14:3 Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew me