God

Go then, and eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with gladness: because thy works please God.

Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest, all the days of thy unsteady life, which are given to thee under the sun, all the time of thy vanity: for this is thy portion in life, and in thy labour wherewith thou labourest under the sun.

As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones are joined together in the womb of her that is with child: so thou knowest not the works of God, who is the maker of all.

Rejoice therefore, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart be in that which is good in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thy eyes: and know that for all these God will bring thee into judgment.

And the dust return into its earth, from whence it was, and the spirit return to God, who gave it.

Let us all hear together the conclusion of the discourse. Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is all man:

And all things that are done, God will bring into judgment for every error, whether it be good or evil.

Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have brought up children, and exalted them: but they have despised me.

The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood.

Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are gone away backwards.

Except the Lord of hosts had left us seed, we had been as Sodom, and we should have been like to Gomorrha.

Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha.

To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims, saith the Lord? I am full, I desire not holocausts of rams, and fat of fatlings, and blood of calves, and lambs, and buck goats.

When you came to appear before me, who required these things at your hands, that you should walk in my courts?

Offer sacrifice no more in vain: incense is an abomination to me. The new moons, and the sabbaths and other festivals I will not abide, your assemblies are wicked.

My soul hateth your new moons, and your solemnities: they are become troublesome to me, I am weary of bearing them.

And when you stretch forth your hands, I will turn away my eyes from you: and when you multiply prayer, I will not hear: for your hands are full of blood.

And then come, and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool.

But if you will not, and will provoke me to wrath: the sword shall devour you because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Therefore saith the Lord the God of hosts, the mighty one of Israel: Ah! I will comfort myself over my adversaries: and I will be revenged of my enemies.

And I will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean purge away thy dross, and I will take away all thy tin.

And I will restore thy judges as they were before, and thy counsellors as of old. After this thou shalt be called the city of the just, a faithful city.

And he shall destroy the wicked, and the sinners together: and they that have forsaken the Lord, shall be consumed.

And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.

And many people shall go, and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.