Ketuvim
Eikhah5
Lamentations · Chapter 5
Remember, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YHWH), what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers
are as widows.
We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
Our necks
are under persecution: we labour,
and
have no rest.
We have given the hand
to the Egyptians,
and to
the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
Our fathers have sinned,
and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
Servants have ruled over us:
there is none that doth deliver
us out of their hand.
We gat our bread with
the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
They ravished the women in Tsiyon,
and the maids in the cities of Judah.
Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
The crown is fallen
from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
For this our heart is faint; for these
things our eyes are dim.
Because of the mountain of Tsiyon, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
Thou, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YHWH), remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever,
and forsake us so long time?
Turn thou us unto thee, O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YHWH), and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
Ketuvim
Qohelet1
Ecclesiastes · Chapter 1
The words of the Preacher, the son of Dawid, king in Yerushalayim.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all
is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
One generation passeth away, and
another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea
is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
All things
are full of labour; man cannot utter
it:
the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
The thing that hath been, it
is that which shall be; and that which is done
is that which shall be done: and
there is
no new
thing under the sun.
Is there
any thing whereof it may be said, See, this
is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
There is no remembrance of former
things; neither shall there be
any remembrance of
things that are to come with
those that shall come after.
I the Preacher was king over Yisra'el in Yerushalayim.
And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all
things that are done under shamayim: this sore travail hath Elohim given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all
is vanity and vexation of spirit.
That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all
they that have been before me in Yerushalayim: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
For in much wisdom
is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
Ketuvim
Qohelet2
Ecclesiastes · Chapter 2
I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also
is vanity.
I said of laughter,
It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?
I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what
was
that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the shamayim all the days of their life.
I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:
I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all
kind of fruits:
I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees:
I got
me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Yerushalayim before me:
I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men,
as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.
So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Yerushalayim: also my wisdom remained with me.
And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all
was vanity and vexation of spirit, and
there was no profit under the sun.
And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what
can the man
do that cometh after the king?
even
that which hath been already done.
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
The wise man’s eyes
are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.
Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also
is vanity.
For
there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now
is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise
man? as the fool.
Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all
is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.
And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise
man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This
is also vanity.
Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.
For there is a man whose labour
is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it
for his portion. This also
is vanity and a great evil.
For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?
For all his days
are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
There is nothing better for a man,
than that he should eat and drink, and
that he should make his nephesh enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it
was from the hand of Elohim.
For who can eat, or who else can hasten
hereunto, more than I?
For
Elohim giveth to a man that
is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to
him that is good before Elohim. This also
is vanity and vexation of spirit.