“To Everything There Is A Season”

A Poem by Christopher James

{Original Poem Based on Ecclesiastes}

The Seeker who speaketh

Is of a noble lineage.

It is the lineage of God’s elect.

So saith the Seeker, All is vapor.

Vapor covereth all things,

And it maketh crooked the straight paths.

Man hath labored since the days of old time.

He hath labored in vain;

For all things are obscured.

The earth upon which many labors hath been completed

Shall abide for ever in its stasis.

And humankind shall pass itself on toward the future for ever.

The motion of celestial bodies are the same:

They labor, standing watch in the heavens,

Until the appointed time of their going down unto darkness.

The wind which bloweth mightily and for ever

It changeth its course continually;

But this changing of the course was also appointed.

There is one source.

All things flow from it.

All things return unto it again.

All things continually labor in their motions for ever.

This hath been appointed from the beginning;

For no member of creation may depart from this nature.

That which hath been is that which shall be;

And that which shall be is that which hath been.

Both the former and future things participate in the communion of their vapor.

There is nothing which hath being,

Which can not be said to be a member of the former things;

For that which cometh hath already come.

The Seeker who speaketh

Had authority over the city of God,

And over every member of God’s family.

The Seeker who speaketh hath applied his mind

To appeal unto the wisdom of the Most High;

And what a heavy burden to bear this is!

All of the earthly things hath had the eyes of the one who speaketh lain upon them;

All is vapor, saith the Seeker.

All is affliction of the Spirit.

That which is broken may not be repaired:

And the darknesses of mankind can not be numbered.

All things are as they are now, because of these things.

To commune with one’s own heart

Is the mark of one with great experience in wisdom and knowledge.

After all wisdom hath been uncovered, the purpose for which mankind hath been created lieth in the heart.

To know righteousness, knowledge, and goodness;

And to know vainglory, strife, and deceit

Are the two understandings that one shall attain in wisdom.

There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth

At the uncovering of all wisdom;

For she hath begotten the truth, and at times the truth is very difficult to receive.

II.

The heart may not be commanded;

For in striding toward mirth, and earthly pleasures,

There shall be found nothing but vapor.

The purpose for laughter and mirth is obscured.

Their purpose hath not yet been uncovered,

So there still remaineth a reason to consider them madnesses.

The Seeker giveth himself over to the delights of earthly lusts,

Yet the light of wisdom still shineth,

For mankind shall enjoy his days under the sun.

The Seeker constructeth many prosperities for himself,

And yet he findeth nought;

For houses, gardens, and vineyards are vaporous, also.

The earth may bear many fruits;

For the light of the sun and the kiss of the rain

Groweth bad and good fruit alike.

The pool of purification is never impure,

For it washeth away every impurity,

And imbueth dead matter with new life.

The Seeker getteth himself subjects for his kingdom,

Which is his household,

Which is filled with exceeding prosperous riches.

The seeker possesseth those things which all desire:

Silver, and gold, and peculiar treasures,

Men and women singers, and musical instruments.

The Seeker is a sight to behold in the eyes of men.

Wisdom sitteth at his right hand

As he ruleth over the Holy City.

The seeker looketh upon the thing which he desireth,

And that thing is what the seeker shall receive.

Though his heart is content, it is not pure.

All of his labors are vanity.

They are vexation of spirit,

And there is no new thing under the sun.

Wisdom, and madness, and folly whirleth about on their circuits;

Man turneth upon himself, and poisoneth himself with sin.

However, with wisdom, the man may walk further, past death.

Wisdom and light are a presence,

And folly and darkness are an absence.

This is the way that the Lord hath ordained.

One event falleth upon the wise man and the fool.

Even though the eye of the wise man is filled with light,

And the fool’s with darkness.

The Seeker, who seemeth to himself to be wise, lamenteth.

He knoweth not how the wise man may excel at wisdom;

Yet, when he perceiveth that there is none righteous, he perceiveth that his thoughts are vanity, also.

The wise are no more favored by memory than the foolish,

For all that is to come is soon to pass away.

Sheol shall embrace both the wise and the foolish at the end of their lives.

And in premature wisdom, the Seeker setteth himself in opposition, and beginneth to hate life;

There are a multitude of labors under the sun, and they are all cause for lament.

Therefore, the purpose of life is covered by vapor.

The seeker hateth all endeavors;

He perceiveth no purpose to endless toil

Which shall be heaped upon endless generations to come.

And the humankind of the future shall know wisdom and foolishness exactly as the humankind of the present times knoweth them.

The Seeker knoweth not whether his labors shall be entrusted to a wise person, or to a fool.

They are both mired in labor, and they shall both be forgotten. All is vapor.

The heart of the Seeker hath known his labors,

And he knoweth that his labors are nothing compared to everything.

Therefore, his heart doth unveil its displeasure at the sight of the vapor.

In wisdom, and knowledge, and equity hath a man’s labors been completed;

Yet every one of a man’s labors shall be left to those who never earned the labor’s fruits!

This is also vapor, and it is a son of our adversaries (born of the world).

What fruits then shall a man possess of his own labor, if any at all?

What shall he obtain as a bestowal of the vexations of his heart?

Man hath labored under the sun for his appointed time, doth he not deserve his portion?

Every one of his days are filled with terrible woe,

And he is doomed and sealed to his fate, which God hath crafted for him.

The heart travelleth on its circuits toward the fate of great travail each night, and it is vanity.

From the hand of God in the heavens

Hath descended unto us the pleasures of eating, and drinking, and the enjoyment of one’s own labor;

There is nothing better for a man than these things.

Apart from God,

No good fruit can be enjoyed,

And nothing can be eaten.

The good men of God receive from him gifts of wisdom, and knowledge, and joy,

And the wretched sinners of the earth gather and heap up for the service of the good.

This is vapor and vexation of spirit.

III.

There is a season, and an appointed time, for all things under the sun.

Under the heaven, there is a prewritten circuit upon which every purpose must travel.

For every work wrought under the sun, and for every purpose beneath the house of God, there is a time for going up, and a time for going down.

A child is born, and one of the elders dieth;

For the seed of the soul was planted,

And so the plant which hath grown from the seed needeth to be plucked from the soil.

An animus hath been dispelled, and a family is reconciled.

That which is unworthy shall be cast off,

And that which hath been disjointed shall be rebuilt once more.

A mother crieth, whereas formerly she had joy in her spirit.

She is silent in her grief, yet her soul shall dance again in a future day.

That which is built up must be torn down, and that which is torn down must be built up once more.

Stones are cast away, yet they shall be drawn back once more unto the heart.

That which is scattered abroad must be drawn together;

That which desireth unification must be disjointed in its time of separation.

A time there is to seek after that which is meant to be found,

As there is a time for that which is sought to be lost.

That which is kept must be cast away, and that which is cast away will be kept by another.

The garment is torn, and then it is sewn.

The teacher speaketh, and the pupil listeneth.

That which is opened shall be closed, and that which is closed shall be opened again.

There is a time for glorying in love, and a time for the thinking of rotten thoughts drenched in hatred.

There is a time of disunity, and a time of coming together.

There is a time for a light to shine in the world, and a time wherein the world must remain shrouded in darkness.

There is no certain profit in the work completed by the laborer.

Even if he hath labored after the good pleasure of his portion, which is his gift from God, as he hath the right to do by the hand of his Master.

There is a time to gain, and there is a time to lose, both after a hard day’s labors.

Hath this ordination of things also been made for us as a gift from God?

Nay, it is a sore and great travail in the eyes of men that they are so bound to such a evil fate.

If the God on high maketh not evil, then with which words shall we characterize this fixture of life?

Every man hath in his heart a mystery; yea, it is a manuscript written by a foreign hand, affixed to the body whose tongue speaketh the language of a distant people.

This mystery is the work of God, and no man shall know it from beginning to end.

Yea, the Lord God hath made everything beautiful in its own time; yea, every spirit, every landscape, every people, every spirit of every occurrence, good and evil: He hath made the good and the evil which both partake of the infinite beauty His nature.

Yet greater is a man who hath done good in his life than a man who hath done evil, though they are both beautiful in their own ways:

What is good for one is evil for another, and what is evil for one is good for another.

It is by the hand of God that every man should rejoice in the goodness of life which the Almighty hath made for every man.

Furthermore, it is meet that every man should eat, and drink, and enjoy the good of his labor, as they are all gifts from the Father of all.

That which is eaten and drank shall sustain the earthly life of the body,

And the good of the man’s labor shall sustain the spiritual life of his body.

That which is done by the hand of God is not undone; for just as the Lord is infinite, so too are His actions.

Nothing can be put to that which God hath done, and nothing can be taken away from that which God hath done;

For mankind is fearful not of one spirit alone, as the idols of old so wert, but it is fearful of the Spirit of all spirits, the Master of all worlds.

The present time beareth the weight of the ages which have gone;

And the future day already beareth the heavy burden which is the days of old:

The God of the heavens requireth the past so that He may build upon it the foundation of tomorrow, which is today.

The presence of wickedness hath been perceived in the place of judgement;

For the womb of righteousness hath bore a great evil to be born:

The length of the age wherein evil shall grow greater to edify itself from within the righteousness of the heavens shall be ten thousand years, for the future progeny of the Holy One shall come with the same number of saints in return to conquer evil once and for all.

God on high shall judge the righteous and the wicked;

For by His hand, every work hath its own time,

And every purpose hath an age of its own.

God hath devised all of creation as a trial for the minds of men,

That they may one day, through their God-given intellect,

Perceive the truth: they are nought but beasts with a predilection for storytelling.

That which occureth unto the sons of men so occureth unto beasts, for both are members of the flesh of the earth.

As one man is born, one beast dieth; as one beast is born, one man dieth: they hath all one breath, and the circle of life and death is sewn from one fabric.

All is vapor; all things are that which covereth the earth in a thick cloud, so that nothing true may be seen.

Unto one place all things go: the selfsame place from which all things hath come;

All lineages are traceable unto the dirt,

And the body of every man is fashioned from the dust.

Who may know the truth of our destinations?

Shall the spirit of the beast go forth into the earth, and man’s into the heavens?

Or shall the spirit of a man descend into the body of the world? Will the spirit of a beast ascend to the abode of God on high?

There is no thing on earth which is better than this, in any wise:

A man who rejoiceth in his own works, as that is his portion;

Yet who shall be the deliverer of man unto the fruits of his labors which shall be made manifest in future days?

IV.

After all these things, the seeker returneth,

And he considereth all the oppressions borne of darkness that are done under the sun:

Neither the oppressed nor the oppressor have a comforter among their members.

The seeker praiseth both the dead and the living;

Yet more than the praises of the living

Can the praises of the dead be heard.

Better than both the living and the dead, however, the Seeker surmiseth,

Is he who hath not been yet born;

For he hath neither seen, nor been tainted by, the great evils under the sun, which partake of the spirit of vapor.

The seeker considereth all travail, and every work that is right,

And knoweth that these things are borne of vain competition.

This also is vapor and vexation of spirit.

The hands of the fool are folded together

By the will of his own spirit;

And by the selfsame will, the fool partaketh of his own flesh.

Quietness which resteth within one entire handful is a better thing

Than vapor and vexation of spirit

Which resteth within two entire handfuls.

Under the sun, the seeker maketh an attempt to perceive,

Yet the returning seeker perceiveth nothing;

The seeker perceiveth nothing but vapor.

A second there is not, for there is only one alone;

Neither child nor brother hath the solitary laborer, yet to his labor there is no end; his eye is never satisfied with riches, and would not be satisfied even with all the riches of the world.

Humankind, enraptured by its love of the world, inquireth neither concerning for whom it laboreth, nor inquireth it concerning who robbeth its soul of potential good. This is vapor; yea, it is a sore travail.

Although there be only one,

Two would be far better;

For the plural body which divideth it reward amongst its internal members is far better than the singular body which divideth not its reward, as it hath not internal members.

If two fall, the first one who standeth shall help his fellow to his feet:

But woeful is he who is alone when he falleth;

For if he is unable to stand up by himself, then who shall help him up?

If two lie together, they provide heat one to another:

But how can one provide warmth to himself?

How can one become two? The seeker knoweth yet not.

And though one mayest conquer another, and another mayest conquer one,

Two shall alway be greater than one.

And if two shall exceed one by a veritable measure, then how doth a spirit with three bodies compare to the spirit with two bodies, and the spirit with one?

The goodness of the wise and destitute youth excelleth that of an gray and halfwitted king;

Yet the youth shall endure an unnecessary punishment,

But the king shall no more be admonished.

Out of prison cometh the king to reign;

Whilst the populace which was born and raised in his kingdom

Waneth in prosperity.

And so, the seeker considereth every living being which walketh under the sun,

And his descendants who shall come after him;

They are the ones who shall continue to finish that which they did not begin.

And the ones who come after the present days have no end in their members;

For this is the way it was for the ones who came before us.

The seeker declareth that this surely also is vapor and vexation of spirit.

In the abode of the Lord God shalt thou keep thy foot.

Be thou more the ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools:

For they are as darkness, the father from whom their foolishness was begotten; they hath considered not the evil which they do.

God is in heaven, whilst thou art on the earth.

Therefore shall thy tongue be mired with purity, uncorrupted by worldly blemishes,

For God hath made thee to ascend unto the heavens, but not to descend unto the deep.

Pay what thou owest unto God as thou hast promised;

For God hath no honor in his children that be foolish, which defer to pay Him His due.

Therefore, pay unto God that which He requireth from thee.

It is a better thing still not to make a covenant wherein thou wilt have dues unpaid to the Almighty.

For the worse thing would be to vow a vow unto the Father, and not pay:

For in the last day, God shall reap His due from all His debtors, the foolish children.

Let not thy mouth enjoin thy flesh to rebel against the God of our fathers:

Say not thou before the messenger of God that thy deed was unwilled by thy spirit.

In many dreams, there be many clouds, which obscure the vision,

And there be many hopes, and many downfalls, which doth reside in the vapor.

Commit thy spirit to the enactment of the will of the Holy One who hath willed both the spirit and the flesh into being.

Thou shalt see many evils upon the earth:

Oppression of the fatherless, and the widows, and the weak runneth rampantly across the flesh of the earth;

Yet know thou that a great eye watcheth the oppressors; thy deeds be known.

Moreover, perceive thou this very thing:

The bounty of the flesh of the earth is for all;

The king shall live off the good fruit which groweth in springtime, which cometh from the bowels of the firmament God hath made.

Increase leadeth not to the great happiness, which is widely expected;

For he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver.

The more there is to eat, the more there shall be that partake of the bounty.

What use do they possess for their owners?

Shall they be only meat for the eyes of the master?

With disregard for the import of nutrients to the body of the laborer,

His sleep is sweet, as milk and honey:

But the sleep of the rich will never be.

There is a sore evil that I have perceived under the sun:

Riches kept to be possessions of the rich

Shall obscure the rest which they seek.

The riches shall perish by the effectual working of time:

The son begat by him

Hath nothing in his hand.

From the wellspring of the flesh hath the man of old time sprung.

He shall return as he came, naked, and alone.

The labor carried in his hand shall not be taken with him upon his departure.

This is the thing I know; yea, it is a sore evil:

Everything carried by the man of the earth shall leave with him just as he came:

Doth he who hath labored for the wind gain any profit?

All the days of his life, he eateth in the bowels of darkness.

He hath much sorrow, the child of grief,

And wrath, which is the flame of God, in his sickness.

Lo, O ye kindreds of the earth! Behold ye at what I have seen:

It is a righteous and beautiful thing

That one should eat, and drink, and enjoy the good of his labor all the days of his life;

For this is a gift from the God of the heavens and the earth; it is all humankind’s inheritance.

Every one also by God hath received riches, and wealth, and the power to eat by these.

For by these also may one take his inheritance, and may rejoice in his labor;

These are every one gifts from God.

Humankind shall not much remember the goings ups and goings down of the sun he hath seen.

This is not an evil, nor is it a sore travail.

The truth is that God respondeth to the hope of humankind with a gift of joy unto its heart.

VI.

The seeker hath perceived a great evil under the sun;

It is a great and sore travail

Which is common in the hearts of men:

The one who hath riches, wealth, and honor from God

So he is not needful of that which is not his own; he sustaineth himself.

Yet, he must leave his portion entirely for another; this is a sickness, and it is vapor.

The one who begetteth one hundred children, and liveth many years,

Shall enjoy none of his portion; the one who dieth too early dieth better than he.

The rich man shall have no burial, and his name shall be multiplied into nothing.

Humankind hath arrived in a whirl of vapor,

And humankind departeth in the clutches of death, which is darkness.

It shall cover every name, so that his descendants may not know from whence they came.

The name hath not seen the sun in the sky above,

Nor hath it known any thing, at any time:

This name hath more rest than the one to whom he once belonged.

Though one may live one thousand years told twice,

He hath still seen no good, and only vapor:

Doth not all go to one place, which is the all-consuming darkness of Sheol?

The spirit of humankind is not satisfied by any earthly delights,

Yet all of its labor is for the mouth, and for earthly desire;

For humankind is ever sealed to the fate of endless consumption.

What hath the wise more than the fool? What hath the poor that knoweth to walk before the living?

All are equal under the gaze of God Almighty,

Yet our hearts are mired in vapor: this is a great evil and a sore travail.

The wandering of desire is the lesser, whilst the sight of the eyes is a better thing:

This is vapor, and this is vexation of spirit;

For the eyes see the truth, whilst wandering desire mineth its riches only from the bowels of whimsy.

That which hath been hath been already named of old time,

And humankind is known by all,

And it is known that a weaker member of the brotherhood of dust may not overcome the stronger members.

Vapor aboundeth in many words:

How hath humankind improved from stability into flourishing in the midst of vapor?

How doth man change himself from disorder into order?

Who knoweth what is truly good for the heart of mankind?

For mankind hath spent every day of his vain life under the sun as nothing but a shadow.

Mankind may never see beyond the cloud of vapor which covereth all things.

VII.

A precious ointment is of excellent value;

Yet a good name is a far greater thing than this:

The day of return is far better than the day of emergence,

And the house of mourning is greater in virtue than the house of feasting;

The fate of all humankind lieth in the house of mourning; yea, there shall be woe in the day of death:

And the living members of the human family will lay that matter to their hearts.

Laughter hath less worth than sorrow.

By mirth, unification of that which is plural occureth.

In mourning, the single heart is turned away from atrophy.

Wisdom is in mourning, for the wise are strong at heart;

Foolishness is in mirth, for the foolish are weak at heart.

How could that which is made plural in the beginning be transformed into that which is single at the end?

The rebuke of the wise is a good thing;

Yet the people will not receive this:

The foundation of overcoming.

The laughter of the fool is an insignificant thing;

It is the crackling of thorns under the pot:

This is vapor; it is nothing apart from vapor and it is nothing but the substance of the bowels of vapor.

Oppression driveth a wise man into the wilderness of his madnesses;

And a gift rotteth the heart which he hath beating continually in his chest.

Can a man venture beyond his own earthiness?

The end of things, which is in the house of mourning, is far better than the beginning of things, which is in the house of mirth.

Patience outwitteth pride on every occasion.

The prideful shall be disciples of darkness.

Provoke not thyself to anger, saith the Seeker;

For in the provocation to anger, a lush forest is burnt to ashes.

Anger vanquisheth the heart, and beateth of its own accord within the chests of those who hath not overcome.

The days of old time doth not hoard their riches.

There is no wisdom in fondness for the glories of ages past;

There is only wisdom in the teachings of those glories.

To them that see the sun, there is profit by wisdom.

She is like unto a good inheritance.

Whereas some may receive a good and earthly inheritance from men, all may partake of wisdom, the glorious and heavenly inheritance from God.

Wisdom provideth her gifts unto the knowledgeable;

For she bestoweth her life unto those who have knowledge.

Therefore, O ye knowledgeable ones, take heed to store up wisdom in your hearts, that ye may not be separated from righteousness.

Consider the workmanship of the Master,

And dwell upon the ordinances of His will:

That which is made crooked by God can not be made straight, nor can that which is made straight by God be made crooked.

Be joyful in the day of prosperity which God hath made.

Consider in the day of adversity which God hath made that He hath made one and the other in their own sequence,

So humankind may learn to be thankful in every time, and in every place.

So saith the Seeker, I have seen all things in the days of my perplexment in vapor:

The righteous ones perish by and in their righteousness,

And the wicked ones live happily in their days of darkness.

An excess of righteousness is an unrighteous thing; it is reliance upon labors, the fruits of which rot in due season.

An excess of wisdom is an unwise thing; true wisdom lieth in knowledge of mortal limitations, and something unlimited is not accessible to a limited human mind.

These are destruction; by these excesses are men made subject to vanity.

An excess of wickedness is a great evil; for from a surplus of wickedness groweth ignorance, which is the wellspring of cruelty.

An excess of foolishness is the folly of follies; for from a surplus of foolishness springeth forth sin, the father of which is death.

These are destruction, also; by these excesses humankind returneth to the dust before their time.

It is better to take hold of the one, and to not let go of the other,

Than it is to take hold of the one at the expense of thy hold on the other.

The one who followeth and loveth all the ordinances of the heavenly will shall take hold of them both.

Wisdom is a strengthener of whomsoever would receive her gifts;

She strengtheneth the wise in her ways,

More than ten mighty rulers in the city.

Upon the earth, exceeding numerous ones have risen from the dust, and have returned to the dust,

And not one member of humankind hath overcome sin, or been just, or done good.

In the whirlwind of time, there are things which are constant, and things which are variable; that which is variable is the yearning of humankind for righteousness, and that which is constant is the impossibility of the attainment of righteousness.

There are many words spoken, and there are many words heard.

Take heed not to believe every word spoken unto thee;

Lest thou hear thy servant curse thee.

Thy heart knoweth all the works which thou hast committed.

There is a bitter truth which is known by thy heart, also:

Thou hast cursed many of thy brothers and sisters in times past.

All this hath been elucidated to the Seeker by the hand of wisdom.

The Seeker saith, I will be wise;

But the wisdom which he desireth in his heart is far from him.

Those things which are far off, and those things which are exceeding deep,

Are unsearchable mysteries; they are the handiwork of God on high.

Who can find out their beginnings and ends?

The Seeker applieth himself to know the intricacies of wisdom;

He applieth himself to search out the sum of all things in the fullness of time.

It is through exposure to the wickedness, folly, foolishness, madness, and darkness that he shall come to know the mysteries of the Almighty.

There is a woman more bitter than the taste of death;

Her heart is snares and nets, and her hands are chains.

Those who submit to the ordinances of the Lord, and abide in the light, shall escape her clutches; yet those who abide in death, claiming it to be eternal life, shall be dragged down by her into the depths of the pit.

This is that which the Seeker hath uncovered:

Add upon the one the other, and thou shalt see the fullness of wisdom,

When thou hast uncovered the sum of all things.

The Seeker searcheth continually, yet he findeth nothing.

His search beareth one type of fruit, which is one man out of one thousand men;

Yet from the branches of the congregation springeth forth no other type of fruit, which is the woman.

This only hath the Seeker found:

Though humankind deviseth many schemes and plots for itself,

It knoweth not that it was made by the Father for uprightness, and uprightness alone; all human devices shall fade away.

VIII.

Who upon the earth is like unto the wise man known by all peoples?

Who upon the earth knoweth anything true in the certainty of his heart?

Wisdom emboldeneth the countenance to gleam, and the eye to see.

It is a good, a right, and a joyful thing to submit to the ordinances of the King;

For with Him thou hast made a covenant,

And by it, thou wouldst be made into a servant of light.

Thou art within the sight of the Almighty; take heed not to escape His gaze;

For under His gaze is light, and out of His sight is darkness.

Thou wouldst forsake thy citizenship of the light for the corruptible riches of worldliness?

Power floweth from the word of the King,

And there is no other word which hath power to overcome the word of the King.

Therefore, none may disobey Him nor usurp His authority over all things.

No evil thing shall be felt by the one who keepeth his commandment,

And the heart of a wise man knoweth the time and ordinances of things;

For in wisdom lieth both protection from the world, as doth also foreknowledge of things past, things which are, and things which will come.

For every purpose, there is a time and an ordinance of things,

Which is devised by the Master of all;

And great misery still weigheth heavily upon humankind.

That which hath been is that which shall be;

That which is now is that which hath been.

Humankind shall never know the mystery of tomorrow, as also they shall never know the mystery of the Lord God.

No man hath power over his breath, neither to retain it nor dispel it.

Inwardly and outwardly, humankind shall breathe their breath until the day of their departure from this life.

There is no discharge in the war of life, nor doth wickedness provide deliverance to those in its clutches.

The Seeker hath seen all these things,

And hath applied his heart unto every work that is done under the sun:

There is a time wherein the torturer is tortured by the torture he hath committed against his fellow brother; in rulership over the corporeal state of a brother under the sun, the torturer abused the power of his reign, and in so doing, he tortured his own heart with remorse.

The Seeker saw the wicked ones buried in the flesh of the earth,

And he pondered on their arrivals and exits from the place of the holy, and how they were forgotten.

This is vapor, which covereth up all life, and honor, and rejoicing, which are the gifts of God which are hidden within clouds of spiritual smoke.

The human heart is directed towards evil deeds;

This is caused by the sluggishness of persecution against criminals.

One must turn from darkness and disorder toward light and order for the purpose of righteousness.

All things shall be well with those who erase their own mortal will,

Which is a spoiled imitation of the heavenly will of the God Most High.

Yet, though this may be, there be sinners who sin without remorse and have prolonged life; only God could reveal why this is the way of things.

It shall not be well with the wicked ones;

For they shall not prolong their days, which are shadows,

Because they feared not God Almighty.

There is a great cloud of vapor which setteth itself upon the hearts of humankind:

They who are righteous have received the treatment of the wicked,

And they who are wicked have received the treatment of the righteous.

After all these things, the Seeker commendeth mirth,

Because there is no better thing under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry.

This enjoyment which the friends of God hath garnered they will take with them throughout the remainder of all their days under the sun.

The seeker pondereth, and he wandereth through the valleys of confusion.

He asketh of himself concerning the nature of humankind, in order to know wisdom,

Why can humankind not see sleep during the day or the night?

Lo, there is comfort in my soul, saith the Seeker;

For he hath travelled the depths and heights of God’s creation in search of wisdom, and now he hath the answer to every one of his questions:

A human is incapable of searching and knowing the entire breadth of God’s creation, and he who searcheth for wisdom, shall find her in his rest.

IX.

The wise and righteous ones gaze upon all of creation which lieth before them,

The identifiable fixtures of love and hatred crumble; they become unrecognizable.

The only place wherein one may place their trust is in the hand of God, wherein the wise, the righteous, and their works reside.

All things come alike to all:

A great and terrible event falleth in the same manner upon all the people;

The righteous, the good, the pure, the wicked, the impure, the makers of sacrifices, the scorners of sacrifice, the sinners, those who make oaths, and those who fear oaths shall all be victims and champions of the ordinances of God.

This is a sore travail, and a great evil, that one event befalleth all humankind in the selfsame manner:

Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is filled with spiritual poison, which is evil.

Madness overcometh their hearts, and poisoneth them in the days of their lives; they are afflicted by absence of sanity until the days of their departures.

Yet, there is still hope for any member of humankind, as long as they have life.

The heart which beateth, the muscles which move, and the lungs which breathe shall sustain every human being in the days of life, which is an exceeding glorious thing.

A living language spoken by one hundred people is better than a language once spoken by millions which hath remained unspoken for millennia.

Those who live have knowledge of the certainty of their death, though not the time.

Those who are dead know nothing, and possess nothing;

They are forgotten in memory, and if they have not faded from the minds of their loved ones in the present time, then they shall most certainly be forgotten when the time of the deaths of their loved ones cometh.

Love, and hatred, and covetousness are all perished in Sheol;

It is the land of the shadow of death.

The dead have no portion in anything under the sun.

Go thy way, which is the way of merriment and enjoyment of the portion appointed to every one by God.

Eat thy bread after a long fast, and drink thy wine after a period of abstinence;

Thou shalt have a sentiment of contentment which is unparalleled, for it cometh straightly from the Lord; He now accepteth thy works.

Be thou clothed in white garments,

And anoint thy head with oil;

For these are outward signs of an inward spiritual grace.

Live with joy during all thy days under the sun; cling to thy wife whom thou lovest.

The Lord hath bestowed unto thee a life which is malleable; thou art able to devise the circuits upon which thou wilt travel.

Thy life is vapor; it is obscured by a great cloud, and the greater part of the mysteries of thy life will not be resolved.

Do all that thou doest with a firm hand which expelleth the entire breadth of thy strength;

For thou shalt be in the clutches of Sheol in due time, wherein there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom.

Therefore, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might, while thou hast life.

Time and chance are the governors of this world; for there is no consistency in the reward of good effort, good strength, good wisdom, good understanding, and good skill.

Time, which is the infinite and perpetual movement of objects from past, into the present, and into the future, is that which sustaineth the dance of creation;

Chance, which is the illusory conception that events can occur without a cause, can also be said to be a vaporous explanation of the foreordained nature of all things and events.

Man knoweth not his time, just as the caught fish and the ensnared birds knew not theirs;

For the day of one’s death will come as a thief in the night to steal away the most important possession to someone, which is life itself.

All of humankind shall be snatched up in the midst of their solitudes, in the midst of their congregations, in the midst of their good works, in the midst of their iniquities, in the midst of their homes, or in the midst of their times up in the towns or times down in the valleys.

Wisdom is to God as the sun rays are to the sun; therefore, wisdom is the glory of God.

Under the sun, there be truths and falsehoods; yet, when the sun ariseth, the Seeker knoweth that the sun hath not a falsehood to deliver unto him.

And the wisdom which the early morning sun delivered unto the Seeker seemed great unto him:

There was a small city with a few men within its borders,

And a powerful king arrived, and besieged the city, and built bulwarks against it.

This is vapor: the powerful kings of the earth cast tempests of needless suffering upon the earth with their armies.

However, in the city, there was a poor wiseman,

And he, by the might of his wisdom, delivered the city from the attack;

Yet no one kept the old wiseman in their memory.

Wisdom is a better thing than strength;

Wisdom is the most subtle and malleable form of strength, whereas ordinary strength merely applieth to the body.

Wisdom is the sword of the Spirit, which excelleth the body in power.

He who crieth for all in the kingdom to hear is the foolish king

Which emboldeneth fools to speak mindlessly, not regarding that every word shall be heard by God.

Yet, the words of wisemen are kept quiet; for if wisemen spake their wisdom loudly and publicly, there would be great misuse of this wisdom by the many minds which are unprepared for all of her lessons.

Weapons of war hath no importance in comparison to wisdom;

Wisdom is the ultimate goal for the Seeker, because wisdom is with God from the beginning,

Whereas weapons are the finishers of life, and they were neither present in the beginning, nor will they be existent in the end.

The wise one is renowned for his divers solutions to the problems of the people; he is respected, and he is ever searching for more wisdom, like a bear searching for honey.

In his search for wisdom, he became drunk with wine so he could meet with God in his altered state of mind; he then forgot about his meeting with the Lord and meandered around the village, shouting and screaming all night.

After the people learned of the wise one’s great folly, they stopped coming to him for counsel; yet his heart was still on his right side. He was not lost for ever, but was merely misdirected by the influence of carnality.

A wise person’s heart inclineth to the right side of the chest, whereas the heart of the fool inclineth to the left side of the chest.

The right side is the holy side; it is the excellent side of God’s throne, and it is the hand which wieldeth the sword in battle.

The left side is unknown in its capacities and properties; God hath made the left side of things as the section for investigation and discovery, whilst He made the right side of things a signifier of His authority over all things.

The foolish ones walk on the road,

And they act foolish, as they hath been so ordained to do,

And all who see them can tell that they are fools at heart, and that their hearts are inclined to the left.

Stand thy ground against a superior adversary;

For there is honor, and there is peace in acting as tough as a stone.

But if thou yieldest to this superior adversary, a venomous peace will ensue, and thou shalt be forgotten from the face of the earth before thy time.

The Seeker hath perceived a great evil under the sun;

There be numerous darknesses which obscure my life, so saith the Seeker.

It is as an error which proceedeth from the ruler.

Folly is set in great dignity; the rich sit in a low place.

In order to restore folly and its riches to their rightful status, be righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

In order to restore the rich and their riches to their rightful status, spend up all thy coinage on a great many things thou truly needest not.

Servants riding horses shall carry their possessions with as much vigor and speed as if princes were riding their horses; the servants need periods such as these in order to embolden their spirits by taking upon them the role of prince.

Princes walking upon the earth shall walk with immense strength, as they must carry their possessions with vigor, but not speed;

The princes need periods such as these in order to embolden their spirits through the physical hardship of servant life.

The pit which is freshly dug is now freshly filled with the one who dug it.

The serpent which liveth in the hedges hath now bitten the one who broke his home.

Fall not thou into the traps thou hast unknowingly set for thyself.

The stone which hath been moved hath landed upon the hand of a laborer and broken it.

The wood which hath been chopped in pieces hath now injured the eye of the one chopping wood with a very sharp splinter.

Pride is a mental state of danger; when thou art prideful in thine abilities, thou losest thy understanding of the fundamental mechanics of the ability in which thou takest pride; be thou especially cautious when the manner of life which thou livest hath changed rapidly.

Sharpen thy axe, O foolish one; whet the edge of the blade,

There is a need for impossible strength if something concerning your equipment doth not change.

The only possible answer is to employ wisdom to instruct you in the ways of skillfulness and subtlety in order to whet thy iron much more efficiently.

There are two requirements which need to be fulfilled whilst there is a serpent in a public space: firstly, thou needest a serpent, and secondly, thou needest a snake charmer.

Surely, if there is no snake charmer, the snake shall charm itself into biting the nearest creature it can lay its eyes on.

The same shall occur if the human charmer is left unattended, and although he is typically not as dangerous as the serpent, he is still quite bothersome.

Gratitude is the key to a joyful life;

The wiseman speaketh gratitude continually, and he keepeth his mind set upon his thankfulness each day,

Whereas the fool consumeth himself through his lips.

The words of the fool are quite similar to this:

The beginning of his words are foolish enough;

But the end of his talk is nothing but devious lunacy.

A fool is also filled with words:

Anyone can not tell what shall be,

And what shall be after anyone, who can tell the fool?

Knowest thou not whither thou goest?

The young person must labor; the young ones must know the truth of real work.

Real work will repulse the fool alway; they wish not to enter into our rest.

Woe to thee, O region of the firmament,

When thy king is a servant,

And thy princes feast in the morning!

Blessed art thou, O region of the firmament,

When thy king hath preeminent blood, and may rule over the people with a righteous hand.

Thy princes eat for strength, and not for drunkenness!

The house of mirth is crumbling apart;

Why is this, I wonder in my heart, so saith the Seeker.

It is the fault of idleness and slothfulness; the house of mirth decayeth before the eyes of all!

There are many feasts, and many celebrations,

Which are filled with laughter from food and merriment from wine;

Yet, it is quite easy to forget that money is an important factor of life in a fallen world.

Curse thou not those of a higher status; if it is only because they are of a higher status, then try to forget about it, and do thou nothing dangerous.

However, if there is an additional issue with some higher authority, seek out a recruiting rebellion with godly, immovable values.

Keep watch on every word thou sayest, and keep watch on every thought thou thinkest, lest some creature of the air carrieth the message of thy suggestion in its wings to the king or the princes, saith the Seeker to his heart.

XI.

Get thou bread, which is one of the glorious gifts from the Lord of the heavens.

Cast thy bread upon the waters:

After many days, the bread may return unto thee upon the face of the waters.

With the portion thou hast, divide it into eight.

With seven, or eight, sections of it, thou wouldst be able to feed multiple people.

This is important, because the earth is very volatile; thou needest to be prepared for disasters.

When the clouds hath garnered enough water to inundate the surface of the earth, so they shall do.

It is done; the rain is released from the heavens, and the earth is covered in the waters.

When a tree falleth, whether to the south, to the north, to the east, or to the west, that tree falleth into the place that God requireth it to be.

Do not observe the conditions;

Only observe that which is objective.

Observe not the wind, and thou shalt sow; regard not the clouds, and thou shalt reap.

Though there hath been many who claimed to know the ultimate answer, no one may know the thoughts of God.

The bones of human fetuses grow in their wombs everyday under the supervision of the Lord God.

Thou canst not begin to understand the complexities, intricacies, and nuances of God or His will; yet, this does not mean one can not abide in non-knowing.

At the dawn, the Seeker shall sow his seed,

And at night, he shall not withhold his hand;

For all I know is that I know nothing, so saith the Seeker.

Truly, the gleam of the Sun of righteousness is glorious:

The effervescence of the sun is tender to the eyes:

I shall behold the Sun of righteousness at dawn all the days of my life, so saith the Seeker.

All those who have greater amounts of years ought so to rejoice all the days of their lives;

Yet they would know best that many dark days will always come, and that thou needest to be prepared for them all.

All that cometh is vapor (which can easily be reshaped).

I shall rejoice evermore, so saith the Seeker.

I shall let my heart cheer me in the days of my youth, and I shall walk in the ways of my heart, and in the sight of my eyes, So saith the Seeker.

I must solely remember that for all of my deeds, I will be brought into judgement, so saith the Seeker,

From thy mind, exile thy sorrows and woes.

From thy body, exile thy bodily pains.

The days of the new dawn, and childhood, are finished.

XII.

While thou hast peace in thy life, take care to honor God;

For He alone hath created and provided this peace which thou hast.

Remember the Almighty in thy youth, while the celestial bodies are still upon their circuits.

Remember the Almighty in thy youth, while the sun and moon still shineth.

Remember the Almighty in thy youth, before the clouds return with the rain.

Remember the Almighty in thy youth, before the last day cometh.

The keepers of the house shall tremble in that day, and not one person shall know how to survive the event.

A view outside of the window shall reveal darkness,

And all the strong men and the women grinders shall cease their work.

Every door in the street shall be shut;

The sound of grinders shall be low when the voice of a bird shall call,

And one shall rise firstly, and then all the daughters of music shall be brought low.

Fear shall enter into the hearts of they who are afraid of that which is high,

But then, the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall drag itself along, and desire shall fail:

Humankind goeth unto its blissful, peaceful rest, and the mourners go about the streets; they too shall bodily perish and enter into new life someday, though they may not believe it is real life.

If ever the silver cord be loosed, grab thou ahold of something sturdy.

If ever the golden bowl be broken, the Seeker shall help find the one who broke it, or admit guilt for the broken bowl and receive punishment.

If ever the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, place thy trust in the Seeker to burn the bits of them aflame.

As it was, so it shall be;

The dust hath returned to the very spot from whence it came;

So too must the spirit of the dead return to God.

So saith the one, All is vapor.

Vapor covereth all things,

And it maketh crooked the straight paths.

The Seeker was an intuitive and social member of humankind;

He could discern where the right place would be to look for answers to his endless questions, and he would communicate with the people working near him or with him all the time.

He taught the people knowledge through proverbs which he hath both borrowed from and created himself.

The importance of acceptable words was known by the Seeker;

He sought out material and wrote down ideas which were written uprightly,

And he also sought to investigate the people claiming God had written through them.

The words of the wise are as scepters of righteousness.

They are fastened by the masters of assemblies,

Which are given from one shepherd.

Be thou admonished, and learn some spiritual knowledge on this day:

There is no end to making many books,

And much study is a weariness of the flesh.

Follow God’s will, and keep his commandments;

For this is the whole duty of humankind.