Study Desk

Also the light is sweet; yea, it is good for the eyes to behold the sun.

But if the man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all, and remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many. All that may come is vanity.

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth. And make your heart glad in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

So then remove vexation from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh. For childhood and prime of life are vanity.

Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, while the evil days do not come, or the years strike when you shall say, I have no pleasure in them;

while not yet the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, are darkened, or the clouds return after rain;

in the day when those keeping the house shall tremble, and the strong men are bowed, and the grinders cease because they are few; and those looking out the windows are darkened;

and the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the mill is low, and one rises up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music are silenced;

also they shall be afraid of a high place, and terrors in the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the locust makes himself a burden; and desire breaks, because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about in the street;

while the silver cord is not yet loosed, or the golden bowl is crushed, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern;

then the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, all is vanity.