So I thought to myself, “The fate of the fool will happen even to me! ¹  Then what did I gain by becoming so excessively ²  wise?” ³  So I lamented to myself, ⁴  “The benefits of wisdom ⁵  are ultimately ⁶  meaningless!”

So I perceived there is nothing better than for people ¹  to enjoy their work, ²  because that is their ³  reward; for who can show them what the future holds? ⁴ 

When someone’s ¹  prosperity ²  increases, those who consume it also increase; so what does its owner ³  gain, except that he gets to see it with his eyes? ⁴ 

This is another misfortune: ¹  Just as he came, so will he go. What did he gain from toiling for the wind?

Whatever has happened was foreordained, ¹  and what happens to a person ²  was also foreknown. It is useless for him to argue with God about his fate because God is more powerful than he is. ³ 

Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these days?” ¹  for it is not wise to ask that. ² 

yet a fool keeps on babbling. ¹  No one knows what will happen; who can tell him what will happen in the future? ² 

Divide your merchandise ¹  among seven or even eight ²  investments, ³  for you do not know ⁴  what calamity ⁵  may happen on earth.

The Beloved to Her Lover: Tell me, O you whom my heart ¹  loves, where do you pasture your sheep? Where do you rest your sheep during the midday heat? Tell me lest ²  I wander around ³  beside the flocks of your companions!

The Beloved to the Maidens: O maidens of Jerusalem, I command you – If you find my beloved, what will you tell him? Tell him that I am lovesick! ¹ 

The Lover to His Beloved: (7:1) ¹  Turn ² , turn, O ³  Perfect One! ⁴  Turn, turn, that I ⁵  may stare at you! The Beloved to Her Lover: Why ⁶  do you gaze upon the Perfect One like the dance of the Mahanaim? ⁷ 

The Lover to His Beloved: (7:2) How beautiful are your sandaled ¹  feet, O nobleman’s daughter! ²  The curves ³  of your thighs ⁴  are like jewels, the work of the hands of a master craftsman.

“Of what importance to me are your many sacrifices?” ¹  says the Lord. “I am stuffed with ²  burnt sacrifices of rams and the fat from steers. The blood of bulls, lambs, and goats I do not want. ³ 

What more can I do for my vineyard beyond what I have already done? When I waited for it to produce edible grapes, why did it produce sour ones instead?

What will you do on judgment day, ¹  when destruction arrives from a distant place? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

But where, oh where, are your wise men? ¹  Let them tell you, let them find out what the Lord who commands armies has planned for Egypt.

‘What right do you have to be here? What relatives do you have buried here? ¹  Why ²  do you chisel out a tomb for yourself here? He chisels out his burial site in an elevated place, he carves out his tomb on a cliff.

Isaiah ¹  asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything in my treasuries.”

A voice says, “Cry out!” Another asks, ¹  “What should I cry out?” The first voice responds: ²  “All people are like grass, ³  and all their promises ⁴  are like the flowers in the field.

“Let them produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen! Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles, ¹  so we may examine them ²  and see how they were fulfilled. ³  Or decree for us some future events!