What should I say, my son?
What, son of my womb?
What, son of my vows?

I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.

Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

Forsomuch as a man should weary himself with wisdom, with understanding and opportunity, and yet be fain to leave his labours unto another, that never sweat for them. This is also a vain thing and a great misery.

There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.

All this hath he ordained marvelous goodly, to every thing his due time. He hath planted ignorance also in the hearts of men, that they should not find out the ground of his works, which he doth from the beginning to the end.

And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.

I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

I said in my heart, It is thus with the children of men, that God may prove them, and that they should see that they themselves are but beasts.

Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

For, if the one should fall, the other would raise up his companion, - but alas! for him who is alone when he falleth, with no second to raise him up!

And, though an enemy should prevail against one, two, might make a stand before him, - and, a threefold cord, cannot soon be broken.

I saw all the living that walk under the sun, with the child, the second, that should stand up in his stead.

There was no end to all the people, to all before whom he came, yet, they who should come later, would not rejoice in him, - surely, even this, was vanity, and a feeding on wind.

It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.

Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?

Lo! what, I myself, have seen - Better that it should be excellent to eat and to drink and to see blessedness, in all one's toil wherein one toileth under the sun, for the number of the days of his life, in that God hath given it him, for, that, is his portion:

Though a man should beget a hundred children, and live, many years, so that many should be the days of his years but, his own soul, should not be satisfied with the good, and he should not even have, a burial, I said, Better than he, is an untimely birth!

if he should live a thousand years twice, yet does not enjoy his prosperity. For both of them die!

The sight of the eyes is better, then that the soul should so depart away. Howbeit, this is also a vain thing and a disquietness of mind.

Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for [death is] the end of every person, and the living should take [it] to his heart.

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.

Do not be excessively righteous [like those given to self-conceit], and do not be overly wise (pretentious)—why should you bring yourself to ruin?

Do not be excessively or willfully wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?

It is good that you take hold of one thing (righteousness) and also not let go of the other (wisdom); for the one who fears and worships God [with awe-filled reverence] will come forth with both of them.

Then extolled I, gladness, in that there was nothing better for a man, under the sun, than to eat and to drink, and to be glad, - since, that, should tarry with him in his toil, for the days of his life which God had given him under the sun.

When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on the earth (even though one should never sleep day or night),

Then I considered all the work of God, that man could not find out the work that was done under the sun, inasmuch as man toileth in seeking and yet cannot find, - yea, even though the wise man should say he knoweth, yet can he not find it out.

For, the living, knew that they should die, - -but, the dead, knew not, anything, neither had they any longer a reward, because forgotten was their memory.

If the snake should bite before it is charmed, the snake charmer is in trouble.

Yes, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. All that is to come will be futility.

Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?

I have put off my tunic, how should I put it on? I have washed my feet, how should I pollute them? --

(The Chorus)
“What is your beloved more than another beloved,
O most beautiful among women?
What is your beloved more than another beloved,
That you should so command us to take an oath?”

Return, return, Shulammite, return, return, so we may look at you! Why should you look at the Shulammite, like you watch the dance of the two camps?

O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.

His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.

I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, ... Why should ye stir up, why awake my love, till he please?

so that many waters are not able to quench love, neither may the streams drown it. Yea, if a man would give all the good of his house for love, he should count it nothing.

{We have a little sister}, {and she does not yet have any breasts}. What should we do for our sister {on the day when she is betrothed}?

Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; this vineyard delivered he unto the keepers, that every one for the fruit thereof should give him a thousand pieces of silver.

Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Stop trusting in human beings, whose life's breath is in their nostrils. For why should they be given special consideration?

He will protest on that day, saying,
“I will not be your healer,
For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”

My people! children, are their tyrants, And, women, rule over them, - My people! they who should lead thee forward, are causing thee to stray, Thy pathways, have they destroyed,

And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

I will make it a wasteland.
It will not be pruned or weeded;
thorns and briers will grow up.
I will also give orders to the clouds
that rain should not fall on it.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying:

Who should I send?
Who will go for Us?

I said:

Here I am. Send me.

Stupefy thou the heart of this people, And their ears, make thou heavy, And their eyes, overspread, - Lest they see with their eyes And with their ears, should hear, And their heart should discern and come back. And they be healed.

Then he said, "Hear, house of David! [Is it] too little for you to make men weary, that you should also make my God weary?

For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,

You are to regard only the Lord of Hosts as holy.
Only He should be feared;
only He should be held in awe.

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?

And they who should have led this people forward have been causing them to stray, - And, they who are led of them are destroyed,

Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

Should he spread forth his hands in the midst thereof, As a swimmer spreadeth forth to swim, Then would be laid low his pride, together with the devices of his hands.

Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together.

Therefore through this the wickedness [the sin, the injustice, the wrongdoing] of Jacob (Israel) will be atoned for and forgiven;
And this will be the full price [that God requires] for taking away his sin:
When Israel makes all the stones of the [pagan] altars like crushed chalk stones;
When the Asherim and the incense altars will not stand.

For the LORD shall give you a hard-sleeping spirit, and close your eyes. Your Prophets also, and heads which should see; them shall he cover.

Ye turn things upside down! Shall the potter be esteemed as clay; that the thing made should say of him that made it, He made me not; or the thing formed say of him that formed it, He hath no understanding?

For the Egyptian's help shall be but vain and lost. Therefore I told you also that your pride should have an end.

Though My Lord, should give you bread in short measure and water in scant allowance Yet will thy Teacher not hide himself any more, But thine eyes shall ever be looking on thy Teacher.

Now the Egyptians are men, and not God, and their horses flesh, and not spirit. And as soon as the LORD stretcheth out his hand: then shall the helper fall, and he that should have been helped, and they shall all together be destroyed.

These are the perilous weapons of the covetous, these be his shameful counsels: that he may beguile the poor with deceitful works, yea, even there as he should give sentence with the poor.

Wherefore woe be unto thee, O robber: shalt not thou be robbed also? And unto thee that layest wait: as who say there should no wait be laid for thee? Woe unto thee which doest hurt: even so shalt thou be hurt also. And as thou layest wait, so shall wait be laid for thee also.

Of her nobles who should proclaim the kingdom, none are there; and all her princes shall be nought.

Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

Unto this Hezekiah's messengers held their tongues, and answered not one word: for the king had charged them that they should give him none answer.

Hast thou not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? now have I brought it to pass, that it should be thine to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

"I thought I should have gone to the gates of hell in my best age, and have wanted the residue of my years.

A voice was saying, “Cry out!”
Another said, “What should I cry out?”
“All humanity is grass,
and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.

To whom then will ye liken me, that I should be equal to him ? saith the Holy One.

So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.

I have long time holden my peace, sayeth the LORD, should I therefore be still, and keep silence for ever? I will cry like a travailing woman, and at once will I destroy, and devour.

The LORD was pleased, for the sake of his vindication, that he should magnify his Law and make it glorious.

If thou goest through the water, I will be with thee, that the strong floods should not pluck thee away. When thou walkest in the fire, it shall not burn thee, and the flame shall not kindle upon thee.

yea, and that without any fear or stop. For have not I ever told you hitherto, and warned you? Ye can bear me record yourselves. Is there any God except me? Or any maker, that I should not know him?

Who should now make a God, or fashion an Image, that is profitable for nothing?

No one thinks to himself, nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves: 'I burned half of it in the fire -- yes, I baked bread over the coals; I roasted meat and ate it. With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol? Should I bow down to dry wood?'

Alas for him who contendeth with his Fashioner, - A potsherd, should contend with the potsherds of the ground! Shall it be said by the clay, unto him that is fashioning it, What wouldst thou make? Or, thy work say, of thee, He hath no hands?

“Who will you compare Me or make Me equal to?
Who will you measure Me with,
so that we should be like each other?

Yet must he be taken on men's shoulders and borne, and set in his place, that he may stand and not move. Alas that men should cry unto him, which giveth no answer; and delivereth not the man that calleth upon him, from his trouble.

And thou thoughtest thus, "I shall be lady forever." And beside all that, thou hast not regarded these things, neither cast, what should come after.

therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, 'My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.'

“They are created now [called into being by the prophetic word] and not long ago;
And before today you have not heard of them,
So that you will not say, ‘Oh yes! I knew them.’

For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.

This is what the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says,

“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit (benefit),
Who leads you in the way that you should go.

Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.

And now, saith Jehovah, that formed me from the womb to be his servant, that I should bring Jacob again to him; (though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorified in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God shall be my strength;)

He says, “It is too trivial a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will also make You a light to the nations
That My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

Because, My Lord, Yahweh, would help me, Therefore was I not deterred by insult, - Therefore did I set my face like flint, And I knew that I should not be put to shame.

Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys his servant? Whoever walks in deep darkness, without light, should trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

Lift up - to the heavens - your eyes, And look around to the earth beneath Though, the heavens, like smoke, should have vanished And, the earth, like a garment, should fall to pieces, And, her inhabitants, in like manner, should die, Yet, my salvation, unto times age-abiding, shall continue, And, my righteousness, shall not be broken down.

“I, even I, am He who comforts you.
Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies
And of a son of man who is made [as destructible] as grass,

That you have forgotten the Lord your Maker,
Who stretched out the heavens
And laid the foundations of the earth,
That you continually tremble with fear all day long because of the rage of the oppressor,
As he takes aim to destroy?
And where is the rage of the oppressor?

The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.