Study Desk

I said in my heart with regard to the sons of men that God is testing them to show them that they are but beasts.

but better than both is he who has not yet been, and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up.

Again, if two lie together, they are warm; but how can one be warm alone?

For when dreams increase, empty words grow many: but do you fear God.

But in all, a king is an advantage to a land with cultivated fields.

When goods increase, they increase who eat them; and what gain has their owner but to see them with his eyes?

Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much; but the surfeit of the rich will not let him sleep.

and those riches were lost in a bad venture; and he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand.

a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them; this is vanity; it is a sore affliction.

If a man begets a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but he does not enjoy life's good things, and also has no burial, I say that an untimely birth is better off than he.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

All this I have tested by wisdom; I said, "I will be wise"; but it was far from me.

And I found more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters; he who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.

which my mind has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found.

Behold, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices.

but it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

And I commend enjoyment, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink, and enjoy himself, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of life which God gives him under the sun.

But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hate man does not know. Everything before them is vanity,

But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.