Study Desk

Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning.

So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat, and drink, and enjoy themselves, for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun.

is vanity, since the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice. As are the good, so are the sinners; those who swear are like those who shun an oath.

For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. Like fish taken in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them.

So I said, "Wisdom is better than might; yet the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heeded."

Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a foul odor; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

Just as you do not know how the breath comes to the bones in the mother's womb, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything.

As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens.

As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

And so people are humbled, and everyone is brought low— do not forgive them!

Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will become rotten, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed."

So the Lord raised adversaries against them, and stirred up their enemies,

So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day—

so as not to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain? For all this his anger has not turned away; his hand is stretched out still.

My hand has found, like a nest, the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing, or opened its mouth, or chirped."

The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down.

so there shall be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that is left of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

The Lord of hosts has sworn: As I have designed, so shall it be; and as I have planned, so shall it come to pass:

Like fluttering birds, like scattered nestlings, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.