Study Desk

While He had not yet made the earth and the fields, Nor the first dust of the world.

There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, And there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in poverty.

There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, Yet is not washed from his filthiness.

The rock hyraxes are not a mighty people, Yet they make their houses in the rocks;

The locusts have no king, Yet all of them go out in ranks;

The lizard you may grasp with the hands, Yet it is in kings' palaces.

All the rivers flow into the sea, Yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, There they flow again.

The wise person's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I know that one and the same fate happens to both of them.

And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is futility.

There was a man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches, and he never asked, "And for whom do I labor and deprive myself of pleasure?" This too is futility, and it is an unhappy task.

A poor yet wise youth is better than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to receive instruction—

a person to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honor, so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God has not given him the opportunity to enjoy these things, but a foreigner enjoys them. This is futility and a severe affliction.

"It has not even seen the sun nor does it know it; yet it is better off than that man.

All a person's labor is for his mouth, and yet his appetite is not satisfied.

But there was found in it a poor wise man, and he saved the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

Yet the fool multiplies words. No person knows what will happen, and who can tell him what will come after him?

Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.

"Yet there will still be a tenth portion in it, And it will again be subject to burning, Like a terebinth or an oak Whose stump remains when it is cut down. The holy seed is its stump."

"Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered; And listen, all remote places of the earth. Get ready, yet be shattered; Get ready, yet be shattered.

Yet the people do not turn back to Him who struck them, Nor do they seek the LORD of armies.