Old/New Testament
Other things that have no purpose[a]
4 I saw again all the ways that people are cruel on the earth.
I saw some people who were crying because cruel people were hurting them.
There was nobody who could help them.
Nobody could rescue them from those cruel people.
2 I thought about people who are already dead.
I decided that they are happier than the people who are still alive.
3 But people who have not yet been born are even happier!
They have not seen the evil things that happen on the earth.
4 I also thought about the clever work that people do. I saw that people work hard because they are jealous of each other. They want to do better than other people. I realized that this has no purpose. It is like somebody who tries to catch the wind.
5 Foolish people refuse to work.
They sit and they do nothing.
So they become hungry and they die.
6 It is good to have only a little food and be happy.
That is better than too much hard work that gives you a lot of food.
It is as useless as somebody who tries to catch the wind.
7 I thought about something else on the earth that has no purpose.
8 There are people who live alone.
They have no friends, children or brothers.
They work hard every day.
They want to get more riches for themselves.
But they are never happy with the things that they have.
They should ask themselves, ‘Why am I working so hard?
Am I helping anybody?
I am not doing things that make me happy.’
Their work has no purpose. It only brings trouble to their lives.
9 Two people who work together
are better than one person who works alone.
They can help each other to work well.
10 If one of them falls down,
his friend can help him to get up.
But it is terrible if you fall down when you are alone.
There is nobody who can help you to stand up again.
11 Also, if two people sleep together,
they help each other to be warm.
But if you sleep alone,
it is difficult to be warm.
12 If you are alone, one person might attack you and hurt you.
But two people together can help each other to win the fight.
If you use three strings to make a rope,
it is difficult for anyone to break it.
13 A young man may be very poor. But if he is wise, he is better than a king who is foolish. When the king is old, he may not listen to his friends' advice. 14 A young man who is wise may even become king himself one day. He may have been in prison. He may have been born in a poor family in that kingdom. But he may later rule there as king.
15 I thought about all the people who live on the earth. I realized that one of them would also become king one day. He would rule instead of the other young man who became king. 16 Large crowds of people give him honour as their king. But in future years, nobody will praise him. I realized that this has no purpose. It is like somebody who tries to catch the wind.
Think before you speak
5 When you go to God's temple, be careful what you do. Listen carefully when you come near to God. Do not offer sacrifices in the way that foolish people do. They do not even know that they are doing something bad.
2 You should not speak too soon.
Think carefully before you make a promise to God.
God is in heaven and you are here on the earth.
So do not say too much.
3 If you worry about many things,
you will have many dreams.
If you talk too much,
you will say foolish things.
4 If you make a promise to God,
quickly do what you have promised.
God is not pleased with foolish people.
So give what you have promised to give.
5 It is better not to promise anything
than to promise something and then not do it.
6 Do not say things that cause you to do something wrong. Do not say to the priest, ‘My promise was a mistake.’ That would make God angry with you. He might destroy everything that you have worked to get for yourself. 7 If you dream all the time or if you talk all the time, that has no purpose. Instead, respect God and obey him.
Money does not make you happy
8 You may see a place where poor people are suffering. Powerful people may be hurting them. Do not be surprised if you see that. The judges may not be doing what is right and fair. That happens because the government's officers have to obey people who are more important than them. 9 All of them take something for themselves from the land. The king himself receives his share of the crops.
10 People who love money never have enough.
They may get more and more valuable things,
but they are never happy.
This also has no purpose.
11 As a person's money becomes more,
there are more people who want a share of it.
Money does not help the people who have a lot of it.
They see it, but it quickly disappears.
12 Someone who has worked hard all day will sleep well at night.
That is true even if they have not had much food to eat.
But the rich man worries about his riches.
So he does not sleep well.
13 I have seen another terrible thing that happens on the earth.
Some people may store their riches,
but it does not help them in a time of trouble.
14 Something may happen in the future
that causes their money to disappear.
After they die,
no money remains for their children.
15 When people are born,
they bring nothing with them.
When they die,
they take nothing away with them.
All their hard work finally leaves them with nothing.
16 This is also a terrible thing to happen.
People leave this earth with nothing,
as they came into it with nothing.
All their hard work has been useless,
like someone who tries to catch the wind.
17 Even if people are rich, they do not enjoy their food.
They suffer all through their lives.
They are upset, angry and sick.
18 But I realized that there is one good thing for people to do. We should be happy to eat and to drink. And we should enjoy the hard work that we do on the earth. That is what God wants us to do during the short time that he has given us on this earth. 19 God gives some people a lot of money and valuable things. He helps them to enjoy those things and to be happy with their work. All of this is a gift from God. 20 People like that do not think a lot about what has happened in their lives. God helps them to be happy as they are busy with their work.
6 I have seen another terrible thing that happens on the earth. It causes people to have a lot of trouble. 2 God may give someone lots of money and valuable things. People also respect that person. He has everything that he wants. He has worked hard to get them. But God does not allow him to enjoy those things. Instead, a stranger enjoys all that person's things. This has no purpose. It is a terrible thing to happen to someone.
3 Someone may have many children and he may live for a long time. But even if he lives until he is very old, he may not enjoy a good life. After he dies, people may not bury him with honour. His life would be useless. Even a child that is dead at birth is happier than that person. That is what I think. 4 The child's birth has no purpose. He immediately goes to a dark place. Nobody ever speaks his name. 5 He never sees the light of day. He never knows anything. But he enjoys more rest than that rich person. 6 A rich person might live for 2,000 years. But if he never enjoys his riches, it would be better if he died at birth. Remember that after death, we all go into our graves.
7 The reason people work so hard is to get food.
But they never have enough to eat.
8 Does a wise person have a better life than a foolish person?
No, he does not!
Does it help a poor person if he knows how to live well?
No!
9 It is good to enjoy the things that we have.
That is better than to want more things all the time.
If you always try to get more things, that has no purpose.
It is like somebody who tries to catch the wind.
10 Everything that is here today already has its name.
Everyone knows what we humans are like.
It is useless to argue with someone who is more powerful than we are.
11 If we talk too much,
we will say silly things.
So it will not help anyone to talk with many words.
12 Nobody knows the best way for us to live our lives.
We live for only a few years
and our lives seem to have no purpose.
Our lives quickly disappear, like a shadow.
Nobody can tell us what will happen on the earth after our death.
How God has helped Paul
12 I must continue to praise myself. It will not really help you, but I will tell you anyway. The Lord has shown me special things, like in a dream. 2 I know a certain man who belongs to Christ. 14 years ago, God quickly took this man up to the third heaven. Perhaps this man was still in his body. Perhaps he had gone away from his body. I do not know. Only God knows. 3-4 I know that God took this man up to paradise. I do not know whether this man was still in his body or not. Only God knows. When this man was in heaven, he heard about secret things. Those are things that no words can describe. God will not let any person speak about those things. They are too special.[a]
5 I will say proud things about a man like that. But I will not be proud of anything good about myself. I will only be proud of things that show my weakness. 6 If I did want to praise myself, that would not make me a fool. No, because I would be saying true things. But I will not say good things about myself. I want everyone to think properly about me. People should look at how I live. They should think about what I say. That is enough for them to decide about me.
7 Yes, God did show me many things that were very special. But he did not want me to be proud because of that. So he gave me a pain in my body, like a sharp thorn. Satan uses that pain to give me much trouble. It is like Satan's angel that he sends to hurt me. That certainly stops me from being proud of myself! 8 I asked the Lord three times to take this pain away from me. 9 But he said to me, ‘I will be kind to you and I will help you. That will be enough for you. When you are weak, I will show that I am completely powerful to help you.’
So I am happy to be proud about my weakness. Then I know that Christ's power will be with me. 10 That is why I am happy even when I am weak. People may insult me. They may bring me trouble. They may want to hurt me. I may have many kinds of trouble. But I am still happy because I am serving Christ. Yes, whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul is a true apostle
11 I am speaking like a proud fool, but you have made me do it. You yourselves should be saying good things about me. I may not be important. But I am as good as those very special apostles.[b] 12 When I was there with you, I showed that I was a true apostle. I worked patiently among you. I did many miracles and great things that showed God's power. 13 I worked among you in the same way as I did with the other churches. You were never less important to me than they are. The only difference is that I did not ask you to help me with money. So perhaps I should ask you to forgive me for that!
14 Listen to me! This is the third time that I am ready to visit you. I will not ask you to give anything to me. I do not want any of your things. Instead, I want you yourselves. You are like my children. Children should not have to supply what their parents need. It is parents who should supply what their children need. 15 So I will be happy to give everything that I have to you. I will be happy to give myself too, because I want to help you. Perhaps I love you too much! But that should not mean that you will love me less than you should.
16 I did not give you trouble. You surely know that. But some of you say that I deceived you. You think that I was clever and I got money from you. 17 That is not true! When I sent people to you, they never cheated you on my behalf. 18 I asked Titus to come and visit you, and I sent another Christian friend with him. But Titus certainly did not deceive you to get anything from you. Both he and I have always been completely honest with you. We both think in the same way.
19 What are you thinking when you read all this? Do you think that we want to show you how good we are? No, we are speaking as people who belong to Christ. God knows us. Everything that we do is to help you. We love you and we want to make you stronger as believers.
20 When I come there to visit you, I hope you will be living in a good way. But I am afraid that I will not see what I want to see. Then you will see that I am different from what you want me to be! I am afraid that you may be quarrelling. You may be jealous of each other. You may be very angry with each other. Some of you may just want to please yourselves. You may be insulting one another, or telling lies about one another. You may be proud of how good you are. You may be causing trouble for one another. Yes, I am afraid that all those things may be happening among you.
21 I am afraid that I may be very sad when I come back to you. My God may cause me to feel ashamed about you. Some of you may still be doing bad and disgusting things. You may be having sex with people that you are not married to, or in other wrong ways. Those are the bad things that many of you did at one time. If you have not turned away from those bad things, that will make me weep.
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