So I decided ¹  to discern the benefit of ²  wisdom and knowledge over ³  foolish behavior and ideas; ⁴  however, I concluded ⁵  that even ⁶  this endeavor ⁷  is like ⁸  trying to chase the wind! ⁹ 

He said, “Go and tell these people: ‘Listen continually, but don’t understand! Look continually, but don’t perceive!’

Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this land to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March up against this land and destroy it!’”’” ¹ 

Yet the children born during your time of bereavement will say within your hearing, ‘This place is too cramped for us, ¹  make room for us so we can live here.’ ² 

“That is because, from the least important to the most important of them, all of them are greedy for dishonest gain. Prophets and priests alike, all of them practice deceit.

For I solemnly warned your ancestors to obey me. ¹  I warned them again and again, ²  ever since I delivered them out of Egypt until this very day.

Over and over again ¹  the Lord has sent ²  his servants the prophets to you. But you have not listened or paid attention. ³ 

You must pay attention to the exhortations of my servants the prophets. I have sent them to you over and over again. ¹  But you have not paid any attention to them.

For they have not paid attention to what I said to them through my servants the prophets whom I sent to them over and over again,’ ¹  says the Lord. ²  ‘And you exiles ³  have not paid any attention to them either,’ says the Lord. ⁴ 

We’re eager to trade silver for the poor, ¹  a pair of sandals ²  for the needy! We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!” ³ 

“I will not overlook, ¹  O sinful house, the dishonest gain you have hoarded away, ²  or the smaller-than-standard measure I hate so much. ³ 

You made people like fish in the sea, like animals in the sea ¹  that have no ruler.

When ¹  you pray, do not babble repetitiously like the Gentiles, because they think that by their many words they will be heard.

“When ¹  an unclean spirit ²  goes out of a person, ³  it passes through waterless places ⁴  looking for rest but ⁵  does not find it.

and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

For in those days before the flood, people ¹  were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark.

When his family ¹  heard this they went out to restrain him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

And he said to them, “Take care about what you hear. The measure you use will be the measure you receive, ¹  and more will be added to you.

Just as Jesus ¹  was getting out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit ²  came from the tombs and met him. ³ 

When it was already late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is an isolated place ¹  and it is already very late.