Ecclesiastes 7:15

Then they will deliver you up to oppression, and will kill you. You will be hated by all of the nations for my name’s sake.

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

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

His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.

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

Now therefore let the fear of Yahweh be on you. Take heed and do it; for there is no iniquity with Yahweh our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of bribes.”

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

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

Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor of Yahweh.

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

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.

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

“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?’

Nevertheless even many of the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they didn’t confess it, so that they wouldn’t be put out of the synagogue,

The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.

Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. May Yahweh the Judge be judge today between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.”

Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?

“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers.

He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.

“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness, from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.

But the humble shall inherit the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread.

Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

Whatever my eyes desired, I didn’t keep from them. I didn’t withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor, and this was my portion from all my labor.

For he doesn’t know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?

But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow, because he doesn’t fear God.

Hear Yahweh’s word, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for my name’s sake, have said, ‘Let Yahweh be glorified, that we may see your joy;’ but it is those who shall be disappointed.

“I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

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

Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.

But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,

saying, “Didn’t we strictly command you not to teach in this name? Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man’s blood on us.”

Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.

Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years.

God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and grew very mighty.

You shall keep his statutes and his commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for all time.

He said, “I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

‘Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,’ says Yahweh; ‘and I will repay you in this plot of ground,’ says Yahweh. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to Yahweh’s word.”

but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy.

However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly.

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.

It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts.” Job did so continually.

You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.

Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.”

“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.

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

so that men shall say, “Most certainly there is a reward for the righteous. Most certainly there is a God who judges the earth.”

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

The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.

Rise up, you judge of the earth. Pay back the proud what they deserve.

I am a stranger on the earth. Don’t hide your commandments from me.

Your statutes have been my songs in the house where I live.

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.

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.

Therefore I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what will be after him?

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.

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?

Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.

A fool also multiplies words. Man doesn’t know what will be; and that which will be after him, who can tell him?

Tell the righteous “Good!” For they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

“Those who are wise among the people will instruct many; yet they will fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder, many days.

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

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused!

May it never be! For then how will God judge the world?

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

who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men,

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,

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.

Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had.

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

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

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

Also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, is the gift of God.

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

Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,

the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,

May it be far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”

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.”

The two men, the wicked fellows, came in and sat before him. The wicked fellows testified against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king!” Then they carried him out of the city and stoned him to death with stones.

“Remember, now, whoever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?

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

For there are no struggles in their death, but their strength is firm.

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.

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.

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.

Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity, for that is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you labor under the sun.

“No more will there be an infant who only lives a few days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; for the child will die one hundred years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old will be accursed.

They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.

Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.

I went by the field of the sluggard, by the vineyard of the man void of understanding: