Study Desk

Let his children be fatherlessand his wife a widow.

Let his children wander as beggars,searching for food far from their demolished homes.

Let no one show him kindness,and let no one be gracious to his fatherless children.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vinewithin your house,your children, like young olive treesaround your table.

and will see your children’s children!Peace be with Israel.

For he strengthens the bars of your city gatesand blesses your children within you.

Let Israel celebrate its Maker;let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.

“People, I call out to you;my cry is to the children of Adam.

I was rejoicing in his inhabited world,delighting in the children of Adam.

In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidenceand his children have a refuge.

Grandchildren are the crown of the elderly,and the pride of children is their fathers.

A righteous person acts with integrity;his children who come after him will be happy.

Her children rise up and call her blessed;her husband also praises her:

I have seen the task that God has given the children of Adam to keep them occupied.

I said to myself, “This happens so that God may test the children of Adam and they may see for themselves that they are like animals.”

For the fate of the children of Adam and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath. People have no advantage over animals since everything is futile.

Who knows if the spirits of the children of Adam go upward and the spirits of animals go downward to the earth?

A man may father a hundred children and live many years. No matter how long he lives, if he is not satisfied by good things and does not even have a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

Listen, heavens, and pay attention, earth,for the Lord has spoken:“I have raised children and brought them up,but they have rebelled against me.

Oh sinful nation,people weighed down with iniquity,brood of evildoers,depraved children!They have abandoned the Lord;they have despised the Holy One of Israel;they have turned their backs on him.