Study Desk

Here is what I have seen to be good: It is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward.

Furthermore, everyone to whom God has given riches and wealth, he has also allowed him to enjoy them, take his reward, and rejoice in his labor. This is a gift of God,

for he does not often consider the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.

God gives a person riches, wealth, and honor so that he lacks nothing of all he desires for himself, but God does not allow him to enjoy them. Instead, a stranger will enjoy them. This is futile and a sickening tragedy.

Consider the work of God,for who can straighten outwhat he has made crooked?

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that no one can discover anything that will come after him.

It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.

And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a trap: her heart a net and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”

Keep the king’s command because of your oath made before God.

Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before him.

However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God.

So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

I observed all the work of God and concluded that a person is unable to discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though a person labors hard to explore it, he cannot find it; even if a wise person claims to know it, he is unable to discover it.

Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works.

Just as you don’t know the path of the wind,or how bones develop in the womb of a pregnant woman,so also you don’t know the work of God who makes everything.

Rejoice, young person, while you are young,and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth.And walk in the ways of your heartand in the desire of your eyes;but know that for all of these things God will bring you to judgment.

and the dust returns to the earth as it once was,and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity.

For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.