Ecclesiastes 1:17

Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust also in him, and he will do this:

I have seen the burden which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.

Yes, he loves the people. All his saints are in your hand. They sat down at your feet. Each receives your words.

I turned myself to consider wisdom, madness, and folly; for what can the king’s successor do? Just that which has been done long ago.

“I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can’t tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false.

Wine is a mocker and beer is a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives.

There is one who is alone, and he has neither son nor brother. There is no end to all of his labor, neither are his eyes satisfied with wealth. “For whom then, do I labor and deprive my soul of enjoyment?” This also is vanity. Yes, it is a miserable business.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground, for you were taken out of it. For you are dust, and you shall return to dust.”

Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.

Let us choose for us that which is right. Let us know among ourselves what is good.

I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.

Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity, and that foolishness is madness.

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event to all: yes also, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

You have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you each walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me.

The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?

He said to them, “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses.”

But the chief priests conspired to put Lazarus to death also,

Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.

But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.

in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?

I will walk in liberty, for I have sought your precepts.

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (even though eyes see no sleep day or night),

I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.

This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.

Yes, the dogs are greedy. They can never have enough. They are shepherds who can’t understand. They have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.

Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. An arrogant man who doesn’t stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death, and can’t be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations, and heaps to himself all peoples.

“Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal;

Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?

Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good.

But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one.

I speak as to wise men. Judge what I say.

proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.

Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

so that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ,

Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.

Hold the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict those who contradict him.

“I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. You hold firmly to my name, and didn’t deny my faith in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

Nevertheless, hold that which you have firmly until I come.

and take double money in your hand, and take back the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight.

Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. The days of the years of my life have been few and evil. They have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”

Behold, an old man came from his work out of the field at evening. Now the man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he lived in Gibeah; but the men of the place were Benjamites.

He will keep the feet of his holy ones, but the wicked will be put to silence in darkness; for no man will prevail by strength.

Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. Therefore she told him nothing until the morning light.

behold, I have done according to your word. Behold, I have given you a wise and understanding heart; so that there has been no one like you before you, and after you none will arise like you.

But you do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.

Into your hand I commend my spirit. You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.

Who is someone who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?

Don’t trust in oppression. Don’t become vain in robbery. If riches increase, don’t set your heart on them.

Yahweh’s works are great, pondered by all those who delight in them.

Wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.

Take firm hold of instruction. Don’t let her go. Keep her, for she is your life.

Commit your deeds to Yahweh, and your plans shall succeed.

A man who isolates himself pursues selfishness, and defies all sound judgment.

The heart of the discerning gets knowledge. The ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

He who follows after righteousness and kindness finds life, righteousness, and honor.

That which has been is that which shall be; and that which has been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.

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

There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.

For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:

For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one breath; and man has no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity.

Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity.

All this I have seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt.

For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them.

Why then have the people of Jerusalem fallen back by a perpetual backsliding? They cling to deceit. They refuse to return.

After the piece of bread, then Satan entered into him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”

who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of understanding. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul, and sought to hear the word of God.

and said, “You son of the devil, full of all deceit and all cunning, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?

Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

The soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, so that none of them would swim out and escape.

For, “He who would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A mute donkey spoke with a man’s voice and stopped the madness of the prophet.