Ecclesiastes 12:7-8

12:7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was,

and the life’s breath returns to God who gave it.

Concluding Refrain: Qoheleth Restates His Thesis

12:8 “Absolutely futile!” laments the Teacher,

“All of these things are futile!”

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

12:13 Having heard everything, I have reached this conclusion:

Fear God and keep his commandments,

because this is the whole duty of man.

12:14 For God will evaluate every deed,

including every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Isaiah 24:1-2

The Lord Will Judge the Earth

24:1 Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth

and leave it in ruins;

he will mar its surface

and scatter its inhabitants.

24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people,

the master as well as the servant,

the elegant lady as well as the female attendant,

the seller as well as the buyer,

the borrower as well as the lender,

the creditor as well as the debtor.

Isaiah 40:6-8

40:6 A voice says, “Cry out!”

Another asks, “What should I cry out?”

The first voice responds: “All people are like grass,

and all their promises are like the flowers in the field.

40:7 The grass dries up,

the flowers wither,

when the wind sent by the Lord blows on them.

Surely humanity is like grass.

40:8 The grass dries up,

the flowers wither,

but the decree of our God is forever reliable.”

James 4:13-16

4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 4:14 You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes. 4:15 You ought to say instead, “If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that.” 4:16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

James 4:1

Passions and Pride

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, from your passions that battle inside you?

James 1:24

1:24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was.