Study Desk

There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:

The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;

Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.

Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.

For all his days are but sorrows, and his travail is grief; yea, even in the night his heart taketh no rest. This also is vanity.

For to the man that pleaseth him God giveth wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that pleaseth God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

I said in mine heart, It is because of the sons of men, that God may prove them, and that they may see that they themselves are but as beasts.

Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter.

For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, and hath not another to lift him up.

Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth: but how can one be warm alone?

For thus it cometh to pass through the multitude of dreams and vanities and many words: but fear thou God.

The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the fulness of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

a man to whom God giveth riches, wealth, and honour, so that he lacketh nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it; this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

If a man beget an hundred children and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, but his soul be not filled with good, and moreover he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he:

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

For wisdom is a defence, even as money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom preserveth the life of him that hath it.

All this have I proved in wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.

And I find a thing more bitter than death, even the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.

which my soul still seeketh, but I have not found: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.

Behold, this only have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.