Sept 16th

I have seen everything during my days of vanity; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.

Do not be excessively righteous, and do not be overly wise. Why should you make yourself desolate?

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

It is good that you seize one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.

Wisdom strengthens a wise man more than ten men with power who are in a city.

Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.

Also, do not give your heart to all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your slave cursing you.

For your heart also knows that you likewise have many times cursed others.

I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me.

What has been is far away and exceedingly deep. Who can find it?

I turned my heart to know, to explore, and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the wickedness of foolishness and the simpleminded folly of madness.

And I found more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is good before God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

“See, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “adding one thing to another to find an explanation,

which my soul still seeks but has not found. I have found one man out of a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these.

See, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”

Who is like the wise man and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom illumines his face and causes his stern face to beam.

I say, “Keep the command of the king because of the sworn oath before God.

Do not be in a hurry to go from his presence. Do not stand in an evil matter, for he will do whatever he pleases.”

Since the word of the king is powerful, who will say to him, “What are you doing?”

He who keeps a royal command experiences no evil thing, for a wise heart knows the proper time and custom.

For there is a proper time and custom for every matter, though a man’s trouble is multiplied upon him.

If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?

There is no man who has power to restrain the wind with the wind, and there is none who has power over the day of death; and there is no discharge in the time of war, and wickedness will not provide escape to its masters.

All this I have seen and given my heart to every work that has been done under the sun wherein a man has power over another man to his calamity.

So then, I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out from the holy place, and they are soon forgotten in the city where they did thus. This too is vanity.

Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.

Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may prolong his life, still I know that it will be well for those who fear God, who fear Him openly.

But it will not be well for the wicked man, and he will not prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear God openly.

There is vanity which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the works of the wicked. On the other hand, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the works of the righteous. I say that this too is vanity.

So I laud gladness, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will join with him in his labor throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.

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

and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot find out the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not find it out; and though the wise man should say, “I know,” he cannot find it out.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

To the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is working in your perseverance in the same sufferings which we also suffer.

And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even to live.

Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;

who rescued us from so great a peril of death, and will rescue us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet rescue us,

you also joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf, so that thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you.

For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand until the end,

just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason for boasting as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.

And in this confidence I intended at first to come to you, so that you might receive grace twice;

that is, to pass your way into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be helped on my journey to Judea.

Therefore, was I vacillating when I intended to do this? Or what I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, so that with me there will be yes, yes and no, no at the same time?

But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no.

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—was not yes and no, but has become yes in Him.

For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes. Therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.

Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God,

who also sealed us and gave the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.

But I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth.

Not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are standing firm.