Psalms 78:33

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

For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope

Yahweh will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew. They will pursue you until you perish.

How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?

Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.

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.

So all those who were counted of the children of Israel by their fathers’ houses, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war in Israel—

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.”

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?

They encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza. They left no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep, ox, or donkey.

It was so, that after they had carried it there, Yahweh’s hand was against the city with a very great confusion; and he struck the men of the city, both small and great, so that tumors broke out on them.

“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.

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.

They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns. They have exhausted themselves, and profit nothing. You will be ashamed of your fruits, because of Yahweh’s fierce anger.”

“I will appoint over them four kinds,” says Yahweh: “the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy.

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.”

Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul.

The man of yours whom I don’t cut off from my altar will consume your eyes and grieve your heart. All the increase of your house will die in the flower of their age.

“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is;

But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”

What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

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

Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.

He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.

Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men!

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

Why did I come out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Most certainly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.

With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

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.

Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don’t provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.

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.

from twenty years old and upward, all who are able to go out to war in Israel. You and Aaron shall count them by their divisions.

But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are consumed in the wilderness.

But among these there was not a man of them who were counted by Moses and Aaron the priest, who counted the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.

For Yahweh had said of them, “They shall surely die in the wilderness.” There was not a man left of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

“Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against Yahweh in the company of Korah, but he died in his own sin. He had no sons.

They will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine, oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

He will keep the feet of his holy ones, but the wicked will be put to silence in darkness; for no man will prevail by strength.

even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

“Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.

Aren’t my days few? Stop! Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,

Look away from him, that he may rest, until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day.

Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.

I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.

There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.

Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more.”

Consume them in wrath. Consume them, and they will be no more. Let them know that God rules in Jacob, to the ends of the earth.

For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.

Therefore he swore to them that he would overthrow them in the wilderness,

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.

So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.

For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, with knowledge, and with skillfulness; yet he shall leave it for his portion to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

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.

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.

Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

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.

There was no end of all the people, even of all them over whom he was—yet those who come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

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

Yes, if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many. All that comes is vanity.

Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Yahweh has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, “Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies, and foreigners will not drink your new wine, for which you have labored,

They will eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They will eat up your flocks and your herds. They will eat up your vines and your fig trees. They will beat down your fortified cities in which you trust with the sword.

“ ‘ “But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances, which if a man keeps, he shall live in them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them.

“You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: ‘You say this, “Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them. How then can we live?” ’

You will sow, but won’t reap. You will tread the olives, but won’t anoint yourself with oil; and crush grapes, but won’t drink the wine.

This will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike all the peoples who have fought against Jerusalem: their flesh will consume away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will consume away in their sockets, and their tongue will consume away in their mouth.

However with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?”

Everyone who passes over to those who are counted, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering to Yahweh.

Yahweh’s anger burned in that day, and he swore, saying,

Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation who had done evil in Yahweh’s sight was consumed.

Moreover Yahweh’s hand was against them, to destroy them from the middle of the camp, until they were consumed.

But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they are destroyed.

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,

would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves me seriously for your sakes, for Yahweh’s hand has gone out against me.”

David was told, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing floors.”

I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

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

For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.

For your arrows have pierced me, your hand presses hard on me.

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

Then I returned and saw vanity under the sun.

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

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!”

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings.

They will build houses and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.