Micaiah replied, “Look, you will see in the day when you go into an inner room to hide.”

I loathe ¹  it; ²  I do not want to live forever; leave me alone, ³  for my days are a vapor! ⁴ 

You men, ¹  how long will you try to turn my honor into shame? ²  How long ³  will you love what is worthless ⁴  and search for what is deceptive? ⁵  (Selah)

Surely people go through life as mere ghosts. ¹  Surely they accumulate worthless wealth without knowing who will eventually haul it away.” ² 

Men are nothing but a mere breath; human beings are unreliable. ¹  When they are weighed in the scales, all of them together are lighter than air. ² 

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!”

All who form idols are nothing; the things in which they delight are worthless. Their witnesses cannot see; they recognize nothing, so they are put to shame.

No one is concerned about justice; ¹  no one sets forth his case truthfully. They depend on false words ²  and tell lies; they conceive of oppression ³  and give birth to sin.

This is what the Lord says: “What fault could your ancestors ¹  have possibly found in me that they strayed so far from me? ²  They paid allegiance to ³  worthless idols, and so became worthless to me. ⁴ 

They see delusion and their omens are a lie. ¹  They say, “the Lord declares,” though the Lord has not sent them; ²  yet they expect their word to be confirmed. ³ 

Have you not seen a false vision and announced a lying omen when you say, “the Lord declares,” although I myself never spoke?

Therefore you will no longer see false visions and practice divination. I will rescue my people from your power, and you ¹  will know that I am the Lord.’”

Be sure of this! The Lord who commands armies has decreed: The nations’ efforts will go up in smoke; their exhausting work will be for nothing. ¹ 

Thus the Pharisees ¹  said to one another, “You see that you can do nothing. Look, the world has run off after him!”

For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified. ¹ 

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is futile and your faith is empty.

So then, dear brothers and sisters, ¹  be firm. Do not be moved! Always be outstanding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

For the fate of humans ¹  and the fate of animals are the same: As one dies, so dies the other; both have the same breath. There is no advantage for humans over animals, for both are fleeting.

For no one knows what is best for a person during his life ¹  – during the few days of his fleeting life – for ²  they pass away ³  like a shadow. Nor can anyone tell him what the future will hold for him on earth. ⁴ 

His battle cry overwhelms like a flooding river ¹  that reaches one’s neck. He shakes the nations in a sieve that isolates the chaff; ²  he puts a bit into the mouth of the nations and leads them to destruction. ³