Your throne has been secure from ancient times; you have always been king. ¹ 

seven Israelite tribes had not been assigned their allotted land. ¹ 

This ¹  has been my practice, for I observe your precepts.

I, the Teacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹ 

thus ¹  I have been made to inherit ²  months of futility, ³  and nights of sorrow ⁴  have been appointed ⁵  to me.

They will report that the fords have been captured, the reed marshes have been burned, the soldiers are terrified. ¹ 

By ¹  the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, ²  and he ceased ³  on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing.

When he came and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” He answered, “Your servant hasn’t been anywhere.”

When the wall had been rebuilt and I had positioned the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed,

I should have been as though I had never existed; ¹  I should have been carried right from the womb to the grave!

For ¹  it has been hidden from the eyes of every living creature, and from the birds of the sky it has been concealed.

I have been dependent on you since birth; ¹  from the time I came out of my mother’s womb you have been my God. ² 

I am oppressed and have been on the verge of death since my youth. ¹  I have been subjected to your horrors and am numb with pain. ² 

if ¹  you have been ensnared ²  by the words you have uttered, ³  and have been caught by the words you have spoken,

Whatever exists now has already been, and whatever will be has already been; for God will seek to do again ¹  what has occurred ²  in the past. ³ 

Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand, ¹  and your children ²  like its granules. Their name would not have been cut off and eliminated from my presence. ³ 

Our holy temple, our pride and joy, ¹  the place where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire; all our prized possessions have been destroyed. ² 

The grains of seed ¹  have shriveled beneath their shovels. ²  Storehouses have been decimated and granaries have been torn down, for the grain has dried up.

Listen to the howling of shepherds, because their magnificence has been destroyed. Listen to the roaring of young lions, because the thickets of the Jordan have been devastated.

Jacob’s sons killed them ¹  and looted the city because their sister had been violated. ²