Ecclesiastes 5:12

“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

I laid myself down and slept. I awakened; for Yahweh sustains me.

but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.

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.”

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.

All his days he also eats in darkness, he is frustrated, and has sickness and wrath.

Your threshing shall continue until the vintage, and the vintage shall continue until the sowing time. You shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

“ ‘I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid. I will remove evil animals out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

But when you go over the Jordan and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety,

Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight.

When you lie down, you will not be afraid. Yes, you will lie down, and your sleep will be sweet.

The angel who talked with me came again, and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep.

My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

After Methuselah’s birth, Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, and became the father of more sons and daughters.

“ ‘Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.

In those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite living on the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim, who took for himself a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah.

Also you will lie down, and no one will make you afraid. Yes, many will court your favor.

Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.

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

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.

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

Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won’t be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers;

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down,” says the Lord Yahweh.

To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.

This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.

But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”

He said to me, ‘Yahweh, before whom I walk, will send his angel with you, and prosper your way. You shall take a wife for my son from my relatives, and of my father’s house.

Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, “You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on,

and said to them, “I see the expression on your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.

He blessed Joseph, and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day,

You shall eat no leavened bread with it. You shall eat unleavened bread with it seven days, even the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste) that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

‘Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam.’

So they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.

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.

Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab; for she had heard in the country of Moab how Yahweh had visited his people in giving them bread.

Solomon awoke; and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, and offered up burnt offerings, offered peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

Say, ‘The king says, “Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.” ’ ”

You will be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you will search, and will take your rest in safety.

In peace I will both lay myself down and sleep, for you, Yahweh alone, make me live in safety.

“Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.

So that your beloved may be delivered, save with your right hand, and answer us.

Man goes out to his work, to his labor until the evening.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved ones.

For you will eat the labor of your hands. You will be happy, and it will be well with you.

Wealth gained dishonestly dwindles away, but he who gathers by hand makes it grow.

In all hard work there is profit, but the talk of the lips leads only to poverty.

Prepare your work outside, and get your fields ready. Afterwards, build your house.

She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp doesn’t go out by night.

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

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

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 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 the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

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),

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.

On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.

“ ‘I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil animals to cease out of the land. They will dwell securely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.

In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground. I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the land, and will make them lie down safely.

Give to everyone who asks you, and don’t ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again.

The same night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Guards in front of the door kept the prison.

Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, producing with his hands something that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.

For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: “If anyone is not willing to work, don’t let him eat.”

I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them.”