Study Desk

For length of days and years of life And peace they will add to you.

My son, see that they do not escape from your sight; Comply with sound wisdom and discretion,

And they will be life to your soul And adornment to your neck.

For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.

For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.

For they are life to those who find them, And healing to all their body.

When you walk, they will guide you; When you sleep, they will watch over you; And when you awake, they will talk to you.

"They are all straightforward to him who understands, And right to those who find knowledge.

Will they who devise evil not go astray? But kindness and truth will be to those who devise good.

The words of a gossiper are like dainty morsels, And they go down into the innermost parts of the body.

A wise person scales the city of the mighty And brings down the stronghold in which they trust.

The words of a gossiper are like dainty morsels, And they go down into the innermost parts of the body.

Otherwise they will drink and forget what is decreed, And pervert the rights of all the needy.

For the fate of the sons of mankind and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath, and there is no advantage for mankind over animals, for all is futility.

Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold, I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and power was on the side of their oppressors, but they had no one to comfort them.

Guard your steps as you go to the house of God, and approach to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know that they are doing evil.

If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they may be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, "Better the miscarriage than he,

So then, I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out of the holy place, and they are soon forgotten in the city where they did such things. This too is futility.

This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of mankind are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterward they go to the dead.

Indeed their love, their hate, and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.