Ecc 5:15 We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can’t take our riches with us. Ecc 5:16 And this, too, is a very serious problem. People leave this world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing—like working for the wind.
Ecc 5:12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, Whether he eats little or much; But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.
Ecc 5:11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?
Ecc 5:8 Don’t be surprised if you see a poor person being oppressed by the powerful and if justice is being miscarried throughout the land. For every official is under orders from higher up, and matters of justice get lost in red tape and bureaucracy.
Ecc 5:6 Don’t let your mouth make you sin. And don’t defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make God angry, and he might wipe out everything you have achieved. Ecc 5:7 Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God instead.
Ecc 5:4 When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. Ecc 5:5 It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.
Ecc 5:3 Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool.
Ecc 5:1 As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil to make mindless offerings to God. Ecc 5:2 Don’t make rash promises, and don’t be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few.
Ecc 4:9 Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. Ecc 4:10 If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Ecc 4:11 Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? Ecc 4:12 A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken....
Ecc 4:7 I observed yet another example of something meaningless under the sun. Ecc 4:8 This is the case of a man who is all alone, without a child or a brother, yet who works hard to gain as much wealth as he can. But then he asks himself, “Who am I working for? Why am I giving up so much pleasure now?” It is all so meaningless and depressing.
Ecc 4:5 “Fools fold their idle hands, leading them to ruin.” Ecc 4:6 And yet, “Better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.”
Ecc 4:4 Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.
Ecc 4:1 Again, I observed all the oppression that takes place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power, and their victims are helpless. Ecc 4:2 So I concluded that the dead are better off than the living. Ecc 4:3 But most fortunate of all are those who are not yet born. For they have not seen all the evil that is done under the sun.
Ecc 3:21 For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth? Ecc 3:22 So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is our lot in life. And no one can bring us back to see what happens after we die.
Ecc 3:18 I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals. Ecc 3:19 For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless! Ecc 3:20 Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust.
Ecc 3:17 I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”
Ecc 3:15 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.
Ecc 3:11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.
Ecc 2:10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Ecc 2:11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
Ecc 1:17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. Ecc 1:18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
Pro 31:8 Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Pro 31:9 Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy
Pro 30:32 If you have been foolish, exalting yourself, or if you have been devising evil, put your hand on your mouth.
Pro 29:23 One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.
Pro 26:12 Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Pro 25:6 Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence or stand in the place of the great, Pro 25:7 for it is better to be told, “Come up here,” than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.
Pro 24:16 for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.
Pro 23:10 Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless, Pro 23:11 for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.
Pro 22:28 Do not move the ancient landmark that your fathers have set.
Pro 19:23 The fear of the LORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.
Pro 18:6 A fool's lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating. Pro 18:7 A fool's mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul.
