Old/New Testament

4 ¶ So I returned and considered all the violence that is done under the sun and behold the tears of such as are oppressed, and they have no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but the oppressed had no comforter.

² Therefore I praised the dead who are already dead more than the living who are yet alive.

³ And I thought that better is he than both of them who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil works that are done under the sun.

⁴ ¶ Again, I considered all travail and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

⁵ The fool folds his hands together and eats his own flesh.

⁶ Better is a handful with rest than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.

⁷ ¶ Then I returned, and I saw another vanity under the sun.

⁸ It is the man who is alone, without a successor, who has neither son nor brother; yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity and sore travail.

⁹ Two are better than one because they have a better reward for their labour.

¹⁰ For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him that is alone when he falls, for he has not another to help him up.

¹¹ Again, if two sleep together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone?

¹² And if one prevails against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

¹³ ¶ Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king who will no longer be admonished.

¹⁴ For he came out of prison to reign, even though he was born poor into his kingdom.

¹⁵ I saw all the living who are under the sun walking with the child, the successor that shall stand up in his stead.

¹⁶ There is no end of all the people that have been before them; those also that come after shall not be content in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

5 ¶ Watch thy feet when thou goest to the house of God and draw near with more willingness to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know how to do what God wants.

² Do not be rash with thy mouth and do not let thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God, for God is in heaven and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few.

³ For out of much preoccupation comes the dream, and the voice of the fool out of a multitude of words.

⁴ ¶ When thou dost vow a vow unto God, do not defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools; pay that which thou hast vowed.

⁵ It is better that thou should not vow than that thou should vow and not pay.

⁶ Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was ignorance. Why should thou cause God to be angry because of thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands?

⁷ Because dreams abound, and vanities and the words are many, but fear thou God.

⁸ If thou seest violence unto the poor and the extortion of rights and justice in a province, do not marvel at the matter, for height is looking upon height; and there is one higher than they.

⁹ ¶ And there is higher authority in all of the things of the earth, but he who serves the field is king.

¹⁰ He that loves money shall not be satisfied with money; nor he that loves abundance with increase; this is also vanity.

¹¹ When goods increase, those that eat them are increased; and what good is there to the owners thereof, except the beholding of them with their eyes?

¹² The sleep of the servant is sweet whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

¹³ There is another sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt;

¹⁴ which are lost by evil pursuits and to the sons which he has begotten; there is nothing left in his hand.

¹⁵ As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.

¹⁶ And this also is a sore evil; that in all points as he came, so shall he go; and what profit has he that has laboured for the wind?

¹⁷ In addition to this, all the days of his life he shall eat in darkness, with much wrath and pain and sorrow sickness.

¹⁸ ¶ Behold therefore the good which I have seen: that good is to eat and to drink and to enjoy of the good of all his labour that he takes under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him; for it is his portion.

¹⁹ Likewise, unto every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, he has also given him power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.

²⁰ To such a one, God will remove the concerns common to others, for God shall answer him with joy from his heart.

6 ¶ There is another evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is very common among men:

² A man to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honour so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but the strangers eat it; this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

³ If a man begets a hundred sons and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, if his soul is not filled with good and also that he have no burial; I say that an aborted birth is better than he.

⁴ For he came in vain and departs unto darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.

⁵ Even though he has not seen the sun nor known any thing; this one has more rest than the other.

⁶ For though the other should live a thousand years twice and has not enjoyed good; both shall surely go to the same place.

⁷ ¶ All the labour of man is for his mouth, and with all this the appetite is not filled.

⁸ For what has the wise more than the fool? what more has the poor that knows how to walk among the living?

⁹ It is better to enjoy the good that is present than the wandering of desire; this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

¹⁰ He that is has been named already; and it is known that he is man and that he shall not be able to contend with him that is mightier than he.

¹¹ ¶ Certainly the many words multiply vanity, what more does man have?

¹² For who knows what is good for man in this life, all the days of the life of his vanity which he causes to be as a shadow? for who shall teach the man what shall be after him under the sun?

12 ¶ Certainly it is not expedient for me to glory, but I will come to the visions and the revelations of the Lord.

² I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell; God knows) was caught up to the third heaven.

³ And I know such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knows)

⁴ who was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

⁵ Of such a one I will glory, yet of myself I will not glory, except in my weaknesses.

⁶ Therefore if I should desire to glory in these things, I should not be a fool; for I would say the truth, but now I forbear lest anyone should think of me above that which he sees me to be or that he hears of me.

⁷ And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me above measure, there is given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

⁸ For this thing I besought the Lord three times that it might be taken from me.

⁹ And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather glory in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

¹⁰ Therefore I am content in weaknesses, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong.

¹¹ ¶ I have been a fool, glorying; ye have compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you, for in nothing am I behind the grandiose apostles, though I am nothing.

¹² Truly the signs of the apostle were worked out among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and power.

¹³ For what is it in which ye were inferior to the other congregations {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} except in that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong.

¹⁴ Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be burdensome to you, for I seek not your things, but you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

¹⁵ And I will very gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.

¹⁶ But be it so, I did not burden you; nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.

¹⁷ Did I make a gain of you by any of those whom I sent unto you?

¹⁸ I besought Titus and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus defraud you? Did we not walk in the same Spirit and in the same steps?

¹⁹ Again, do ye think that we excuse ourselves unto you? We speak before God in Christ, but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.

²⁰ For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I desire and that I shall be found unto you such as ye desire not, lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, rumours, tumults,

²¹ lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I would have to mourn over many who have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.