Study Desk

Words of a Gatherer, son of an obedient one, the declaration, an affirmation of the man: -- I have wearied myself [for] God, I have wearied myself [for] God, and am consumed.

For I am more brutish than any one, And have not the understanding of a man.

and I said in my heart, `As it happeneth with the fool, it happeneth also with me, and why am I then more wise?' And I spake in my heart, that also this [is] vanity:

And I am praising the dead who have already died above the living who are yet alive.

There is one, and there is not a second; even son or brother he hath not, and there is no end to all his labour! His eye also is not satisfied with riches, and [he saith not], `For whom am I labouring and bereaving my soul of good?' This also is vanity, it is a sad travail.

All this I have tried by wisdom; I have said, `I am wise,' and it [is] far from me.

And I am finding more bitter than death, the woman whose heart [is] nets and snares, her hands [are] bands; the good before God escapeth from her, but the sinner is captured by her.

Dark [am] I, and comely, daughters of Jerusalem, As tents of Kedar, as curtains of Solomon.

Fear me not, because I [am] very dark, Because the sun hath scorched me, The sons of my mother were angry with me, They made me keeper of the vineyards, My vineyard -- my own -- I have not kept.

Declare to me, thou whom my soul hath loved, Where thou delightest, Where thou liest down at noon, For why am I as one veiled, By the ranks of thy companions?

The beams of our houses [are] cedars, Our rafters [are] firs, I [am] a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys!

Sustain me with grape-cakes, Support me with citrons, for I [am] sick with love.

My beloved [is] mine, and I [am] his, Who is delighting among the lilies,

I am sleeping, but my heart waketh: The sound of my beloved knocking! `Open to me, my sister, my friend, My dove, my perfect one, For my head is filled [with] dew, My locks [with] drops of the night.'

I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, If ye find my beloved -- What do ye tell him? that I [am] sick with love!

I [am] my beloved's, and my beloved [is] mine, Who is delighting himself among the lilies.

I [am] my beloved's, and on me [is] his desire.

I [am] a wall, and my breasts as towers, Then I have been in his eyes as one finding peace.

Therefore -- the affirmation of the Lord -- Jehovah of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah, I am eased of Mine adversaries, And I am avenged of Mine enemies,

He lifteth up, in that day, saying: `I am not a binder up, And in my house is neither bread nor garment, Ye do not make me a ruler of the people.'