Study Desk

If you cannot pay, you will lose everything you have. So why should you lose the bed you sleep on?

So listen, my son, and be wise. Always be careful to follow the right path.

So be careful with wine. It is pretty and red as it sparkles in the cup. And it goes down so smoothly when you drink it.

Don't say, "You hurt me, so I will do the same to you. I will punish you for what you did to me."

Just as snow should not fall in summer, nor rain at harvest time, so people should not honor a fool.

Perfume and incense make you feel good, and so does good advice from a friend.

As one piece of iron sharpens another, so friends keep each other sharp.

Just as you can see your own face reflected in water, so your heart reflects the kind of person you are.

These are the wise sayings of Agur son of Jakeh from Massa. He says, "God, I am tired, so tired. How can I keep going?"

So don't try to change what God says. If you do, he will punish you and prove that you are a liar.

Some people are so proud of themselves, and they look down on everyone else.

Don't waste your strength on women. Women destroy kings, so don't waste yourself on them.

Everything is so meaningless. The Teacher says that it is all a waste of time!

So I decided to fill my body with wine while I filled my mind with wisdom. I tried this foolishness because I wanted to find a way to be happy. I wanted to see what was good for people to do during their few days of life.

I thought to myself, "The same thing that happens to a fool will also happen to me. So why have I tried so hard to become wise?" I said to myself, "Being wise is also useless."

Whether people are wise or foolish, they will still die, and no one will remember either one of them forever. In the future, people will forget everything both of them did. So the two are really the same.

So I became sad about all the work I had done.

There is a time to throw weapons down and a time to pick them up. There is a time to hug someone and a time to stop holding so tightly.

I learned that anything God does will continue forever. People cannot add anything to the work of God, and they cannot take anything away from it. God did this so that people would respect him.

So I said to myself, "God has planned a time for everything, and he has planned a time to judge everything people do. He will judge good people and bad people."