The Vanity of Self-Indulgence
1 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; senjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity.1 2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” 3 I searched with my heart how to tcheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on ufolly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the vfew days of their life. 4 I made great works. I wbuilt houses and planted xvineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also ygreat possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and zgold and the atreasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, bboth men and women, and cmany concubines,2 the delight of the sons of man.
9 So I became great and dsurpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my ereward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a fstriving after wind, and there was nothing to be ggained under the sun.
The Vanity of Living Wisely
12 So I turned to consider wisdom and hmadness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? iOnly what has already been done. 13 Then I saw that there is more gain in jwisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. kAnd yet I perceived that lthe same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring mremembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How nthe wise dies just like the fool! 17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
The Vanity of Toil
18 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must oleave it to the man who will come after me, 19 and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21 because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22 What has a man from all the ptoil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23 For qall his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.
24 rThere is nothing better for a person than that he should seat and drink and find enjoyment3 in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him4 who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, tonly to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Zion, the City of Our God
A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.
1 vGreat is the Lord and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God!
His holy mountain, 2 beautiful in elevation,
is wthe joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
the city of the great King.
3 Within her citadels God
has made himself known as a fortress.
4 For behold, the kings assembled;
they came on together.
5 As soon as they saw it, they were astounded;
they were in panic; they took to flight.
6 Trembling took hold of them there,
anguish as of a woman in labor.
7 By the xeast wind you shattered
the ships of Tarshish.
8 As we have heard, so have we seen
in the ycity of the Lord of hosts,
in the city of our God,
which God will establish forever. Selah
9 We have thought on your steadfast love, O God,
in the midst of your temple.
10 zAs your name, O God,
so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Let Mount Zion be aglad!
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice
because of your judgments!
12 Walk about Zion, go around her,
number her towers,
13 consider well her ramparts,
go through her citadels,
that you may btell the next generation
14 that this is God,
our God forever and ever.
He will guide us forever.1
Nehemiah Stops Oppression of the Poor
1 Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. 2 For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.” 3 There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.” 4 And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s wtax on our fields and our vineyards. 5 Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. xYet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”
6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. 7 I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting yinterest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them 8 and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say. 9 So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the zfear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies? 10 Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. 11 Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.” 12 Then they said, “We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.” And I called the priests and amade them swear to do as they had promised. 13 I also shook out the fold1 of my garment and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said “Amen” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.
Nehemiah’s Generosity
14 Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their bgovernor in the land of Judah, from the ctwentieth year to the dthirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor. 15 The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily ration2 forty shekels3 of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God. 16 I also persevered in the work on this wall, and we acquired no land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work. 17 Moreover, there were at my table 150 men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. 18 Now what was prepared at my expense4 for each day was one ox and six choice sheep and birds, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. Yet for all this I did not demand the food allowance of the governor, because the service was too heavy on this people. 19 eRemember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.
The Command to Rebuild the Temple
1 In the second year of aDarius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of bHaggai the prophet to cZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to dJoshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” 3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your epaneled houses, fwhile this house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: gConsider your ways. 6 hYou have sown much, and harvested little. iYou eat, but you never have enough; jyou drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns kwages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the ldew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”
The People Obey the Lord
12 Then mZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, n“I am with you, declares the Lord.” 14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
The Word of Life
1 aThat which was from the beginning, bwhich we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning cthe word1 of life— 2 the dlife was made emanifest, and we have seen it, and ftestify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was gwith the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our hfellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And iwe are writing these things so that jour2 joy may be complete.
Walking in the Light
5 kThis is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 lIf we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we mlie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and nthe blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 oIf we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and pthe truth is not in us. 9 qIf we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we rmake him a liar, and his word is not in us.
