Ecclesiastes 6:10

For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, “Entreat Yahweh, that he take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to Yahweh.”

They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

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

“But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’

But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”

For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.

Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’

“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? Though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?

Yahweh said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?” He said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where did you come from? Where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarai.”

Pray to Yahweh; for there has been enough of mighty thunderings and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.”

Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go! Why should I kill you?’ ”

When Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the middle of the gate to speak with him quietly, and struck him there in the body, so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.

The king answered the man of God, “Now intercede for the favor of Yahweh your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again.” The man of God interceded with Yahweh, and the king’s hand was restored to him again, and became as it was before.

Judah did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, above all that their fathers had done.

On that day, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the Jews’ enemy, to Esther the queen. Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was to her.

For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others.

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.

That which is has been long ago, and that which is to be has been long ago. God seeks again that which is passed away.

“I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass?

and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away.

Moses said, “Behold, I am going out from you. I will pray to Yahweh that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow; only don’t let Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to Yahweh.”

Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, didn’t depart from the Tent.

and the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife and she is defiled; or if the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife and she isn’t defiled;

The people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh, that he take away the serpents from us.” Moses prayed for the people.

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?

“Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn’t consume the children of Israel in my jealousy.

They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations.

and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark had dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the time of harvest),

If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.

Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’

If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’

Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.

Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!

oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment!

“Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.”

None is so fierce that he dare stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me?

Don’t enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no man living is righteous.

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.

Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand.

The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer; which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it.

A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations. He is on his way. He has gone out from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.

Do they provoke me to anger?” says Yahweh. “Don’t they provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?”

Their prince will be one of them, and their ruler will proceed from among them. I will cause him to draw near, and he will approach me; for who is he who has had boldness to approach me?” says Yahweh.

How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman will encompass a man.”

and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please let our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us to Yahweh your God, even for all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes see us;

I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, Babylon, and you weren’t aware. You are found, and also caught, because you have fought against Yahweh.

Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I will deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will do it.

He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes.

If then you aren’t able to do even the least things, why are you anxious about the rest?

Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more.

Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

Pharaoh said, “I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to Yahweh your God in the wilderness, only you shall not go very far away. Pray for me.”

The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

When the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel shall not stay with us, for his hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god.”

Abner said again to Asahel, “Turn away from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I look Joab your brother in the face?”

that they may offer sacrifices of pleasant aroma to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king, and of his sons.

Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?

“Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.

See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous.

Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you answer me.

that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor!

“Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.

“Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high?

Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?

You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.

Why do you strive against him, because he doesn’t give account of any of his matters?

For he doesn’t need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment.

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

As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

He who is often rebuked and stiffens his neck will be destroyed suddenly, with no remedy.

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.

Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?

Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “Pray now to Yahweh our God for us.”

“Behold, he will come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, I will appoint him over it. For who is like me? Who will appoint me a time? Who is the shepherd who will stand before me?”

When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household,

I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’