Ecclesiastes 4:7

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.

For what does a man have of all his labor and of the striving of his heart, in which he labors under the sun?

What profit has he who works in that in which he labors?

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?

All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to Yahweh your God’s voice.

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.

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.

Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were counted of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me,

I, Yahweh, have spoken. I will surely do this to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.”

Yahweh has done that which he planned. He has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down, and has not pitied. He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you. He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.

For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh.

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.

who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited;’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be built,’ and ‘I will raise up its waste places;’

Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel, I have made known that which will surely be.

Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has sealed him.”

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.

I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.

But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come on you and overtake you.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it.”

Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies says, “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them.

“Behold, siege ramps have come to the city to take it. The city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, of the famine, and of the pestilence. What you have spoken has happened. Behold, you see it.

“Go, and speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will bring my words on this city for evil, and not for good; and they will be accomplished before you in that day.

Those who escape the sword will return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah few in number. All the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to live there, will know whose word will stand, mine or theirs.

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.”

For I am Yahweh. I will speak, and the word that I speak will be performed. It will be no more deferred; for in your days, rebellious house, I will speak the word, and will perform it,” says the Lord Yahweh.’ ”

All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say, ‘Evil won’t overtake nor meet us.’

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”

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

Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me.

A nation which you don’t know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always,

therefore you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

The children of Israel cried to Yahweh, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and he mightily oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years.

This was Yahweh’s word which he spoke to Jehu, saying, “Your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” So it came to pass.

All the vessels of God’s house, great and small, and the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.

Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous.

I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,

“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.

“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.”

My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.

Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.

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

You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure.

Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul.

All the relatives of the poor shun him: how much more do his friends avoid him! He pursues them with pleas, but they are gone.

A needy man who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain which leaves no crops.

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

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

Surely extortion makes the wise man foolish; and a bribe destroys the understanding.

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.

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, the sort of error which proceeds from the ruler.

The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it falls on Israel.

Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.

Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity.

I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.”

“Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.

Behold, I have today set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

For Yahweh says, “Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel it.”

For I have set my face on this city for evil, and not for good,” says Yahweh. “It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.” ’

Yahweh’s anger will not return until he has executed, and until he has performed the intents of his heart. In the latter days, you will understand it perfectly.

to listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send to you, even rising up early and sending them, but you have not listened;

So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

then it will happen that the sword, which you fear, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are afraid, will follow close behind you there in Egypt; and you will die there.

“Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘You have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah. Behold, today they are a desolation, and no man dwells in them,

“Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

Yahweh has accomplished his wrath. He has poured out his fierce anger. He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations.

They will know that I am Yahweh. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.” ’

Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Righteous men will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of women who shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost. We are completely cut off.’

All this came on the king Nebuchadnezzar.

He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky, such has not been done as has been done to Jerusalem.

It will be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will repay them for their deeds.

Woe to the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! Yahweh’s word is against you, Canaan, the land of the Philistines. I will destroy you, that there will be no inhabitant.

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.’ ”

For Yahweh of Armies says: “As I thought to do evil to you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and I didn’t repent;

I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.

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

But all this has happened that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

What does man gain from all his labor in which he labors under the sun?