<p class="poetry">Look, you make my days short-lived,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and my life span is nothing from your perspective.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Surely all people, even those who seem secure, are nothing but vapor.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">You severely discipline people for their sins;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">like a moth you slowly devour their strength.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Surely all people are a mere vapor. (Selah)p>

<p class="poetry">God looks down from heaven<n id="1" /> at the human race,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">to see if there is anyone who is wise<n id="3" /> and seeks God.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">I am surrounded by lions;p> <p class="poetry">I lie down<n id="1" /> among those who want to devour me;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">men whose teeth are spears and arrows,p> <p class="poetry">whose tongues are a sharp sword.<n id="3" />p>

<t /><p class="psasuper">For the music director; according to the <i>al-tashchethi> style;<n id="2" /> a prayer<n id="3" /> of David.p> <p class="poetry">Do you rulers really pronounce just decisions?<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">Do you judge people<n id="5" /> fairly?p>

<p class="poetry">Men are nothing but a mere breath;p> <p class="poetry">human beings are unreliable.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">When they are weighed in the scales,p> <p class="poetry">all of them together are lighter than air.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill;p> <p class="poetry">however, he must hand over<n id="1" /> the fruit of his labor<n id="2" /> as an inheritance<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">to someone else who did not work for it.p> <p class="poetry">This also is futile, and an awful injustice!<n id="4" />p>

<t /><p class="poetry">Whatever has happened was foreordained,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and what happens to a person<n id="2" /> was also foreknown.p> <p class="poetry">It is useless for him to argue with God about his fatep> <p class="poetry">because God is more powerful than he is.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">What I have continually sought, I have not found;p> <p class="poetry">I have found only<n id="1" /> one upright<n id="2" /> man among a thousand,p> <p class="poetry">but I have not found one upright woman among all of them.p>

<t /><p class="poetry">Who is<n id="1" /> a<n id="2" /> wise person? Who knows the solution<n id="3" /> to a problem?<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">A person&#8217;s wisdom brightens his appearance,<n id="5" /> and softens<n id="6" /> his harsh countenance.<n id="7" />p>

<p class="poetry">I replied, &#8220;How long, sovereign master?&#8221; He said,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated,p> <p class="poetry">and houses are uninhabited,p> <p class="poetry">and the land is ruined and devastated,p>

<p class="poetry">The Egyptians are mere humans, not God;p> <p class="poetry">their horses are made of flesh, not spirit.p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> will strike with<n id="1" /> his hand;p> <p class="poetry">the one who helps will stumblep> <p class="poetry">and the one being helped will fall.p> <p class="poetry">Together they will perish.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Assyria will fall by a sword, but not one human-made;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">a sword not made by humankind will destroy them.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">They will run away from this sword<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">and their young men will be forced to do hard labor.p>

They have burned the gods of the nations,<n id="1" /> for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them.<n id="2" />

<p class="poetry">&#8220;I thought,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;I will no longer see the <sc>Lordsc><n id="1" /> in the land of the living,p> <p class="poetry">I will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">A carpenter takes measurements;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">he marks out an outline of its form;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">he scrapes<n id="3" /> it with chisels,p> <p class="poetry">and marks it with a compass.p> <p class="poetry">He patterns it after the human form,<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">like a well-built human being,p> <p class="poetry">and puts it in a shrine.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;I, I am the one who consoles you.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Why are you afraid of mortal men,p> <p class="poetry">of mere human beings who are as short-lived as grass?<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">The people who do this will be blessed,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">the people who commit themselves to obedience,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,p> <p class="poetry">who refrain from doing anything that is wrong.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">All these idolaters<n id="1" /> will prove to be stupid and ignorant.p> <p class="poetry">Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.p> <p class="poetry">For the image he forges is merely a sham.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">There is no breath in any of those idols.<n id="3" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">&#8220;Indeed, a time is coming,&#8221;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="2" /> &#8220;when I will cause people and animals to sprout up in the lands of Israel and Judah.<n id="3" />