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 

Next, I decided to consider ¹  wisdom, as well as foolish behavior and ideas. ²  For what more can the king’s successor do than what the king ³  has already done?

But look, there is outright celebration! ¹  You say, “Kill the ox and slaughter the sheep, eat meat and drink wine. Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” ² 

All their watchmen ¹  are blind, they are unaware. ²  All of them are like mute dogs, unable to bark. They pant, ³  lie down, and love to snooze.

At whom are you laughing? At whom are you opening your mouth and sticking out your tongue? You are the children of rebels, the offspring of liars, ¹ 

so it would be a lowly kingdom which could not rise on its own but must keep its treaty with him in order to stand.

Woe ¹  to those who wish for the day of the Lord! Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come? It will bring darkness, not light.

But they do not know what the Lord is planning; they do not understand his strategy. He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed ¹  at the threshing floor.

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

If ¹  you had known what this means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice,’ ²  you would not have condemned the innocent.

For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, because you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.” ¹ 

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, ¹  it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven!

And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage.

So ¹  they answered Jesus, ²  “We don’t know.” ³  Then he said to them, “Neither will I tell you ⁴  by what authority ⁵  I am doing these things.

Then ¹  Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I experience?” ¹ 

So ¹  they answered Jesus, ²  “We don’t know.” ³  Then Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you ⁴  by what authority ⁵  I am doing these things.”

Stay alert, then, because you do not know when the owner of the house will return – whether during evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or at dawn –

‘Even the dust of your town ¹  that clings to our feet we wipe off ²  against you. ³  Nevertheless know this: The kingdom of God has come.’ ⁴