It is better to be content with ¹  what the eyes can see ²  than for one’s heart always to crave more. ³  This continual longing ⁴  is futile – like ⁵  chasing the wind.

For ¹  there is not one truly ²  righteous person on the earth who continually does good and never sins.

So I concluded that wisdom is better than might, ¹  but a poor man’s wisdom is despised; no one ever listens ²  to his advice. ³ 

The fragrance ¹  of your colognes ²  is delightful; ³  your name ⁴  is like the finest ⁵  perfume. ⁶  No wonder the young women ⁷  adore ⁸  you!

May your mouth ¹  be like the best wine, flowing smoothly for my beloved, gliding gently over our lips as we sleep together. ² 

Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for good to come to these people! ¹ 

He upheld the cause of the poor and needy. So things went well for Judah.’ ¹  The Lord says, ‘That is a good example of what it means to know me.’ ² 

He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than ¹  the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

א (Alef) ¹ Alas! ²  Gold has lost its luster; ³  pure gold loses value. ⁴  Jewels ⁵  are scattered on every street corner. ⁶ 

ט (Tet) Those who died by the sword ¹  are better off than those who die of hunger, ²  those who ³  waste away, ⁴  struck down ⁵  from lack of ⁶  food. ⁷ 

I also gave ¹  them decrees ²  which were not good and regulations by which they could not live.

add the pieces of meat to it, every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder; fill it with choice bones.

So now, Lord, kill me instead, ¹  because I would rather die than live!” ² 

Indeed, the residents of Maroth ¹  hope for something good to happen, ²  though the Lord has sent disaster against the city of Jerusalem. ³ 

yet you ¹  hate what is good, ²  and love what is evil. ³  You flay my people’s skin ⁴  and rip the flesh from their bones. ⁵ 

The best of them is like a thorn; the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ¹  The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ²  and then you will experience confusion. ³ 

“Because ¹  you have acted like a wanton prostitute ²  – a seductive mistress who practices sorcery, ³  who ⁴  enslaves ⁵  nations by her harlotry, ⁶  and entices peoples by her sorcery ⁷  –

The Lord then addressed good, comforting words to the angelic messenger who was speaking to me.

The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, ¹  every tree that was pleasing to look at ²  and good for food. (Now ³  the tree of life ⁴  and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ⁵  were in the middle of the orchard.)

He must not replace or exchange it, good for bad or bad for good, and if he does indeed exchange one animal for another animal, then both the original animal ¹  and its substitute will be holy.