Ecclesiastes 10:5

Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.

All this I have seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing.

Mordecai went out of the presence of the king in royal clothing of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa shouted and was glad.

When the righteous triumph, there is great glory; but when the wicked rise, men hide themselves.

Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city!” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.

They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.

When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices. When the wicked perish, there is shouting.

I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a chasing after wind.

The wise man’s eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness—and yet I perceived that one event happens to them all.

If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don’t marvel at the matter, for one official is eyed by a higher one, and there are officials over them.

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.

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.

Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in a low place.

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?

Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’

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

He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative Lot and his goods, and the women also, and the other people.

But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. They had slain Athaliah with the sword at the king’s house.

The couriers went out in haste by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Susa was perplexed.

“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.

For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper.

For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.

For the backsliding of the simple will kill them. The careless ease of fools will destroy them.

Riches don’t profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

When the wicked rise, men hide themselves; but when they perish, the righteous thrive.

There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and their jaws like knives, to devour the poor from the earth, and the needy from among men.

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.

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.

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.

I have also seen wisdom under the sun in this way, and it seemed great to me.

For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.

She weeps bitterly in the night. Her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies.

Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.”

Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.

“Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day.

Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.

Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.

They said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them!” They pressed hard on the man Lot, and came near to break the door.

Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”

The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the middle of the sea: all of Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

They rose up early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place which Yahweh has promised; for we have sinned.”

Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have mocked me, I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would have killed you.”

Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor.

Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”

Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned, and is dead.”

Again he sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. The third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and begged him, and said to him, “Man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty of your servants, be precious in your sight.

In his days Pharaoh Necoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates; and king Josiah went against him; and Pharaoh Necoh killed him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.

So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?

You sons of men, how long shall my glory be turned into dishonor? Will you love vanity and seek after falsehood?

“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”

Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.

Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

Moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there.

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

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.

Then I returned and saw vanity under the sun.

There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.

This also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit does he have who labors for the wind?

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy on men:

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.

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.

All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn’t sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears an oath.

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.

In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats,

These two things have happened to you— who will grieve with you?— desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword. How can I comfort you?

You are righteous, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I would like to reason the cause with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they all at ease who deal very treacherously?

“For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.”

Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, “Bring us drinks!”

Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.

But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn’t they overtake your fathers? “Then they repented and said, ‘Just as Yahweh of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’ ”

This again you do: you cover Yahweh’s altar with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn’t regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand.

Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.

Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.”

As he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!”

For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.