Old/New Testament

4 So I turned and considered all the oppressions that are wrought under the Sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed. And no one comforts them. And lo, the strength is in the hand of those who oppress them. Yet no one comforts them.

² Therefore, I praised the dead who are already dead above the living who are still alive.

³ And I count him who has not even been born as better than them both. For he has not seen the evil works which are wrought under the Sun.

⁴ Also I beheld all work, and all perfection of work, and that this is the envy of a man against his neighbor. This also is vanity and grasping at the wind.

⁵ The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.

⁶ Better is a handful with quietness, than two handfuls with labor and grasping at the wind.

⁷ Again I returned and saw vanity under the Sun.

⁸ There is one who has neither son nor brother. And there is no second. Still, there is no end of all his travail. Nor can his eye be satisfied with riches. Nor does he think, “For whom do I travail and defraud my soul of pleasures?” This also is vanity. This is an evil travail.

⁹ Two are better than one. They have a good reward for their labor.

¹⁰ For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone. For he falls, and there is not a second to lift him up.

¹¹ Also if two sleep together, then they shall have heat. But how would there be heat for one?

¹² And though one is overcome, two shall stand. And a threefold cord is not easily broken.

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

¹⁴ For he comes forth to reign from prison, though he was born poor in his kingdom.

¹⁵ I beheld all the living who walk under the Sun with the second child, who shall stand up in his place.

¹⁶ There is no end of all the people who were before them. And those who come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this is also vanity and grasping at the wind.

¹⁷ Guard your step when you enter into the House of God and be near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools. For they do not know that they do evil.

5 Do not be rash with your mouth, or let your heart be hasty to utter a thing before God. For God is in Heaven and you are on the Earth. Therefore, let your words be few.

² For as a dream comes by the multitude of business, so the voice of a fool is in the multitude of words.

³ When you have vowed a vow to God, do not delay in paying it. For He does not delight in fools. Pay what you have promised.

⁴ It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay it.

⁵ Do not allow your mouth to make your flesh sin, nor say before the Angel that this is ignorance. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?

⁶ For in the multitude of dreams and vanities are also many words. But fear God.

⁷ If in a country you see the oppression of the poor and the defrauding of judgment and justice, do not be astonished at the matter. For He who is higher than the highest watches. And there is higher than they.

⁸ And the abundance of the Earth is for all. The king also subsists on the field that is tilled.

⁹ He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver. And he who loves riches shall be without its fruit. This is also vanity.

¹⁰ When goods increase, those who consume them are increased. And what good comes to their owners, but the beholding with their eyes?

¹¹ The sleep of him who travails is sweet, whether he eats little or much. But the satiety of the rich will not allow him to sleep.

¹² There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the Sun: riches reserved to their owners for their evil.

¹³ And these riches perish by evil travail. And when he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.

¹⁴ As he came forth from his mother’s belly, he shall return, naked, to go as he came, and shall carry away nothing from his labor which he has caused to pass by his hand.

¹⁵ And this also is an evil sickness: in all points, as he came so shall he go. And what profit does he have who has labored for the wind?

¹⁶ Also, all his days he eats in darkness with much grief, and in his sorrow and anger.

¹⁷ Behold, then, what I have seen as good: that it is comely to eat and to drink and to take pleasure in all his labor in which he labors under the Sun, the whole number of the days of his life which God gives him. For this is his portion.

¹⁸ Also, to every man to whom God has given riches and treasures, to whom He gives power to eat of it, and to take his part, and to enjoy his labor — these are the gifts of God.

¹⁹ Surely, he will not well remember the days of his life, because God answers to the joy of his heart.

6 There is an evil which I saw under the Sun, and it is much among men:

² a man to whom God has given riches and treasures and honor, and he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires. But God does not give him power to eat of them, but a strange man eats them up. This is vanity. And this is an evil sickness.

³ If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, and the days of his years are multiplied, and his soul is not satisfied with good things, and he is not buried, I say that a miscarriage is better than he.

⁴ For he comes into vanity and goes into darkness. And his name shall be covered with darkness.

⁵ Also he has neither seen the Sun nor known it. This has more rest than the other,

⁶ even if he had lived a thousand years, twice, and still had seen no good. Shall not all go to one place?

⁷ All the labor of man is for his mouth. Yet the soul is not filled.

⁸ For what more has the wise man than the fool? What has the poor who knows how to walk before the living?

⁹ The sight of the eye is better than to walk in lusts. This also is vanity and grasping at the wind.

¹⁰ Whatever has been is now named. And it is known that it is man. And he cannot strive with him who is stronger than he.

12 Doubtless, it is not profitable for me to boast. Yet, I will now come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

² More than fourteen years ago I knew a man in Christ, (whether he was in the body, I cannot tell, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knows.) who was taken up into the third heaven.

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

⁴ How that he was taken up into Paradise, and heard words which cannot be spoken, which are not possible for man to utter.

⁵ Of such a man I will boast. Of myself I will not boast, except that it be of my weakness.

⁶ For though I would desire to boast, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth. But I refrain, lest anyone should think me above that which he sees in me, or hears of me;

⁷ and lest I should be exalted out of measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, because I should not be exalted out of measure.

⁸ For this thing I implored the Lord three times, that it might depart from me.

⁹ And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you. For My power is made perfect through weakness.” Therefore, rather, I will very gladly boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

¹⁰ Therefore, I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in anguish for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

¹¹ I have become a fool in boasting. You have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you. For in nothing was I inferior to the very chief Apostles, though I am nothing.

¹² Indeed, the signs of an Apostle were worked out among you with all patience; with signs and wonders and great works.

¹³ For in what have you been inferior to other churches, except that I myself have not been burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong.

¹⁴ Behold, I am ready to come to you this third time. And yet I will not be burdensome to you. For I seek not what is yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the fathers, but the fathers for the children.

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

¹⁶ But let it be that I do not burden you. Yet for as much as I was crafty, I took you with guile.

¹⁷ Did I defraud you by any of those whom I sent to you?

¹⁸ I have urged Titus to go. And with him I have sent a brother. Did Titus defraud you of anything? Have we not walked in the selfsame spirit, in the same steps?

¹⁹ Again, do you think that we defend ourselves to you? We speak before God, in Christ. But we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.

²⁰ For I fear that when I come, I shall not find you as I would like - and that I shall not be found by you as you would like - and that there is strife, envying, wrath, rivalry, slander, gossip, pride, and discord;

²¹ that when I come again, my God humbles me among you. And I shall lament many of those who have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lewdness which they have committed.