19 A meal is made for laughter, and wine makes life pleasant, but money is the answer for everything.

20 Don't curse the king even in your thoughts, and don't curse rich people even in your bedroom. A bird may carry your words, or some winged creature may repeat what you say.

Live Boldly 11 1 Throw your bread on the surface of the water, because you will find it again after many days.

2 Divide what you have into seven parts, or even into eight, because you don't know what disaster may happen on earth.

3 If the clouds are full of rain, they will let it pour down on the earth. If a tree falls north or south, the tree will remain where it fell.

4 Whoever watches the wind will never plant. Whoever looks at the clouds will never harvest.

5 Just as you don't know how the breath of life enters the limbs of a child within its mother's womb, you also don't understand how Elohim, who made everything, works.

6 Plant your seed in the morning, and don't let your hands rest until evening. You don't know whether this field or that field will be profitable or whether both of them will turn out equally well.

7 Light is sweet, and it is good for one's eyes to see the sun. 8 Even though people may live for many years, they should enjoy every one of them. But they should also remember there will be many dark days. Everything that is coming is pointless.

Remember Your Creator While You're Young 9 You young people should enjoy yourselves while you're young. You should let your hearts make you happy when you're young. Follow wherever your heart leads you and whatever your eyes see. But realize that Elohim will make you give an account for all these things when he judges everyone. 10 Get rid of what troubles you or wears down your body, because childhood and youth are pointless.

12 1 Remember your Creator when you are young, before the days of trouble come and the years catch up with you.

They will make you say, "I have found no pleasure in them."

2 Remember your Creator before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars turn dark, and the clouds come back with rain.

3 Remember your Creator when those who guard the house tremble, strong men are stooped over, the women at the mill stop grinding because there are so few of them, and those who look out of the windows see a dim light.

4 Remember your Creator when the doors to the street are closed, the sound of the mill is muffled, you are startled at the sound of a bird, and those who sing songs become quiet.

5 Remember your Creator when someone is afraid of heights and of dangers along the road, the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and the caper bush has no fruit.

Mortals go to their eternal rest, and mourners go out in the streets.

6 Remember your Creator before the silver cord is snapped, the golden bowl is broken, the pitcher is smashed near the spring, and the water wheel is broken at the cistern.

7 Then the dust of mortals goes back to the ground as it was before, and the breath of life goes back to Elohim who gave it.

8 "Absolutely pointless!" says the spokesman. "Everything is pointless!"

Lifelong Duty-Fear God and Keep His Commands 9 Besides being wise, the spokesman also taught the people what he knew. He very carefully thought about it, studied it, and arranged it in many proverbs. 10 The spokesman tried to find just the right words. He wrote the words of truth very carefully.

11 Words from wise people are like spurs. Their collected sayings are like nails that have been driven in firmly. They come from one shepherd. 12 Be warned, my children, against anything more than these. People never stop writing books. Too much studying will wear out your body. 13 After having heard it all, this is the conclusion: Fear Elohim, and keep his commands, because this applies to everyone. 14 Elohim will certainly judge everything that is done. This includes every secret thing, whether it is good or bad.

a 2:8 A concubine is considered a wife except she has fewer rights under the law.

a 3:5 Hebrew meaning of these two lines uncertain.

b 3:15 Hebrew meaning of this sentence uncertain.

a 4:16 Or "everyone who lived before these [kings]."

b 5:1 Ecclesiastes 5:1-20 in English Bibles is Ecclesiastes 4:17-5:19 in the Hebrew Bible.

a 5:9 Hebrew meaning of this verse uncertain.

a 7:29 English equivalent difficult.

b 8:8 Or "breath."

a 9:2 "Clean" refers to anything that Moses' Teachings say is presentable to God. "Unclean" refers to anything that Moses' Teachings say is not presentable to God.

Introduction to SONG OF SONGS.

This book of love poetry is one of the most enjoyable books of the Bible to read. It begins with kisses sweeter than wine (1:2) and ends with love stronger than death (8:6). The lovers long for each other, pursue each other, and praise each other with extravagant and sometimes comical (at least, from our standpoint) figures of speech. The poems are frankly erotic, and many of the most passionate lines are spoken by the woman.

It is not surprising that the Song of Songs is also one of the most difficult books of the Bible to interpret! Nearly two thousand years ago, Jewish rabbis decided it was an allegory of God's love for Israel. At about the same time, Christian theologians concluded it was an allegory of Christ's love for the church. Medieval mystics thought it portrayed Christ's passionate love for the individual soul. Until the nineteenth century, not too many readers thought it could be what it appears to be-poems about love between a man and a woman.

Today interpreters disagree about whether the book is a collection of some twenty loosely related poems or a story about one couple-perhaps Solomon and one of his brides (as the section headers in this translation indicate, but they aren't part of the original text). Everybody agrees, though, that its ravishing poetry celebrates the goodness of human love and marriage.

Though the Song of Songs, like the book of Esther, never mentions God (in 8:6, "flames that come from Yah" is simply a poetic way of saying "mighty flames"), we can still learn a lot about God as we enjoy its poetry. The book may not be an allegory of God's love, but the self-sacrificing love of a husband for his wife still helps us understand how Christ loves the church (see Ephesians 5:21-33).

Song of Songs also helps us to understand God's love for the world he created. God made humans with male and female bodies, and he pronounced us "very good" (Genesis 1:27-31), which means that he never intended us to be purely spiritual. We are beings of flesh and blood, with emotions and desires. One way to praise God is to take joy in one another, realizing that human love is a reflection of God's unquenchable love for us.

Key Name of God in Song of Songs Yah LORD SONG OF SONGS.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.

1 1 The most beautiful song of Solomon.

The Young Woman Arrives in Solomon's Palace [Bride]

2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.

Your expressions of love are better than wine, 3 better than the fragrance of cologne.

(Cologne should be named after you.) No wonder the young women love you!

4 Take me with you. Let's run away.

The king has brought me into his private rooms.

[The chorus of young women]

We will celebrate and rejoice with you.

We will praise your expressions of love more than wine.

How right it is that the young women love you!

[Bride]

5 Young women of Jerusalem, I am dark and lovely like Kedar's tents, like Solomon's curtains.

6 Stop staring at me because I am so dark.

The sun has tanned me.

My brothers were angry with me.

They made me the caretaker of the vineyards.

I have not even taken care of my own vineyard.

7 Please tell me, you whom I love, where do you graze your flock?

Where does your flock lie down at noon?

Tell me, or I will be considered a prostitute wandering among the flocks of your companions.

[The chorus of young women]

8 If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the flocks, and graze your young goats near the shepherds' tents.

Solomon Searches for the Young Woman's Love [Groom]

9 My true love, I compare you to a mare among Pharaoh's stallions.

10 Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of pearls.

[The chorus of young women]

11 We will make gold ornaments with silver beads for you.

[Bride]

12 While the king is at his table, my perfume fills the air with its fragrance.

13 My beloved is a pouch of myrrha that lies at night between my breasts.

14 My beloved is a bouquet of henna flowers in the vineyards of En Gedi.

[Groom]

15 Look at you! You are beautiful, my true love!

Look at you! You are so beautiful!

Your eyes are like doves!

[Bride]

16 Look at you! You are handsome, my beloved, so pleasing to me!

The leaf-scattered ground will be our couch.

17 The cedars will be the walls of our house.

The cypress trees will be our rafters.

2 1 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily growing in the valleys.

[Groom]

2 Like a lily among thorns, so is my true love among the young women.

[Bride]

3 Like an apple tree among the trees in the forest, so is my beloved among the young men.

I want to sit in his shadow.

His fruit tastes sweet to me.

4 He leads me into a banquet room and looks at me with love.

5 Strengthen me with raisins and refresh me with apples because I am weak from love.

6 His left hand is under my head.

His right hand caresses me.

7 Young women of Jerusalem, swear to me by the gazelles or by the does in the field that you will not awaken love or arouse love before its proper time.

The Young Woman Remembers One Spring Day with Her Beloved [Bride]

8 I hear my beloved's voice.

Look! Here he comes, sprinting over the mountains, racing over the hills.