Psalms 49:20

He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.

But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die without knowledge.

He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, but he who searches after evil, it shall come to him.

Pride goes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.

For he has said, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding. I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I have brought down their rulers.

Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

The king spoke and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?”

And on her forehead a name was written, “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all.

But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you, and we have given you of your own.

Those who hate you will be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked will be no more.”

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

But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure. He is like the animals that perish.

They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression.

Nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the rulers.”

Let the wicked fall together into their own nets while I pass by.

Take away the wicked from the king’s presence, and his throne will be established in righteousness.

Whoever digs a pit shall fall into it. Whoever rolls a stone, it will come back on him.

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

I made myself great works. I built myself houses. I planted myself vineyards.

For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one breath; and man has no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity.

Therefore Yahweh says: “You have not listened to me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim to you a liberty,” says Yahweh, “to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine. I will make you be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.

“ ‘ “Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters. She also didn’t strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

The king commanded, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions mauled them, and broke all their bones in pieces, before they came to the bottom of the den.

The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

standing far away for the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For your judgment has come in one hour.’

The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”

If these men die the common death of all men, or if they experience what all men experience, then Yahweh hasn’t sent me.

and lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.”

He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening. At sundown, Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it that remains to this day.

Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’

Samson said to them, “If you behave like this, surely I will take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.”

Then David ran, stood over the Philistine, took his sword, drew it out of its sheath, killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed is Yahweh, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. Yahweh has returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to himself as wife.

Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Didn’t a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’ ”

For we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground, which can’t be gathered up again; neither does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him.

Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself the pillar which is in the king’s valley, for he said, “I have no son to keep my name in memory.” He called the pillar after his own name. It is called Absalom’s monument, to this day.

You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “Have you killed and also taken possession?” ’ You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours.” ’ ”

Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in which you trust?

I have dug and drunk strange waters, and I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt with the sole of my feet.”

I have also made a decree that whoever alters this message, let a beam be pulled out from his house, and let him be lifted up and fastened on it; and let his house be made a dunghill for this.

He displayed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even one hundred eighty days.

When this matter was investigated, and it was found to be so, they were both hanged on a gallows; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the king’s presence.

So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath was pacified.

Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’

He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.

For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh.

Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”

let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust.

The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.

When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.”

They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall decay in Sheol, far from their mansion.

Bless Yahweh, my soul. Yahweh, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty.

You hide your face; they are troubled. You take away their breath; they die and return to the dust.

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 of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no memory forever, since in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. Indeed, the wise man must die just like the fool!

I said in my heart, “As for the sons of men, God tests them, so that they may see that they themselves are like animals.

He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity.

If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:

For there are many words that create vanity. What does that profit man?

For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.

He who digs a pit may fall into it; and whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.

Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?

They all will answer and ask you, “Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?”

Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms,

Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor?

“ ‘Thus my anger will be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I will be comforted. They will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them.

Speak and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the middle of his rivers, that has said, ‘My river is my own, and I have made it for myself.’

The strong among the mighty will speak to him out of the middle of Sheol with those who help him. They have gone down. The uncircumcised lie still, slain by the sword.

Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them, and will return your repayment on your own head;

Then he called to me, and spoke to me, saying, “Behold, those who go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country.”

“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you. For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you.”

“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?’

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”

Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

“Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?”

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”

For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits.

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;

Likewise, you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility, to subject yourselves to one another; for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was pacified, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her.