The Daily Audio Bible
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Other things that have no purpose[a]
4 I saw again all the ways that people are cruel on the earth.
I saw some people who were crying because cruel people were hurting them.
There was nobody who could help them.
Nobody could rescue them from those cruel people.
2 I thought about people who are already dead.
I decided that they are happier than the people who are still alive.
3 But people who have not yet been born are even happier!
They have not seen the evil things that happen on the earth.
4 I also thought about the clever work that people do. I saw that people work hard because they are jealous of each other. They want to do better than other people. I realized that this has no purpose. It is like somebody who tries to catch the wind.
5 Foolish people refuse to work.
They sit and they do nothing.
So they become hungry and they die.
6 It is good to have only a little food and be happy.
That is better than too much hard work that gives you a lot of food.
It is as useless as somebody who tries to catch the wind.
7 I thought about something else on the earth that has no purpose.
8 There are people who live alone.
They have no friends, children or brothers.
They work hard every day.
They want to get more riches for themselves.
But they are never happy with the things that they have.
They should ask themselves, ‘Why am I working so hard?
Am I helping anybody?
I am not doing things that make me happy.’
Their work has no purpose. It only brings trouble to their lives.
9 Two people who work together
are better than one person who works alone.
They can help each other to work well.
10 If one of them falls down,
his friend can help him to get up.
But it is terrible if you fall down when you are alone.
There is nobody who can help you to stand up again.
11 Also, if two people sleep together,
they help each other to be warm.
But if you sleep alone,
it is difficult to be warm.
12 If you are alone, one person might attack you and hurt you.
But two people together can help each other to win the fight.
If you use three strings to make a rope,
it is difficult for anyone to break it.
13 A young man may be very poor. But if he is wise, he is better than a king who is foolish. When the king is old, he may not listen to his friends' advice. 14 A young man who is wise may even become king himself one day. He may have been in prison. He may have been born in a poor family in that kingdom. But he may later rule there as king.
15 I thought about all the people who live on the earth. I realized that one of them would also become king one day. He would rule instead of the other young man who became king. 16 Large crowds of people give him honour as their king. But in future years, nobody will praise him. I realized that this has no purpose. It is like somebody who tries to catch the wind.
Think before you speak
5 When you go to God's temple, be careful what you do. Listen carefully when you come near to God. Do not offer sacrifices in the way that foolish people do. They do not even know that they are doing something bad.
2 You should not speak too soon.
Think carefully before you make a promise to God.
God is in heaven and you are here on the earth.
So do not say too much.
3 If you worry about many things,
you will have many dreams.
If you talk too much,
you will say foolish things.
4 If you make a promise to God,
quickly do what you have promised.
God is not pleased with foolish people.
So give what you have promised to give.
5 It is better not to promise anything
than to promise something and then not do it.
6 Do not say things that cause you to do something wrong. Do not say to the priest, ‘My promise was a mistake.’ That would make God angry with you. He might destroy everything that you have worked to get for yourself. 7 If you dream all the time or if you talk all the time, that has no purpose. Instead, respect God and obey him.
Money does not make you happy
8 You may see a place where poor people are suffering. Powerful people may be hurting them. Do not be surprised if you see that. The judges may not be doing what is right and fair. That happens because the government's officers have to obey people who are more important than them. 9 All of them take something for themselves from the land. The king himself receives his share of the crops.
10 People who love money never have enough.
They may get more and more valuable things,
but they are never happy.
This also has no purpose.
11 As a person's money becomes more,
there are more people who want a share of it.
Money does not help the people who have a lot of it.
They see it, but it quickly disappears.
12 Someone who has worked hard all day will sleep well at night.
That is true even if they have not had much food to eat.
But the rich man worries about his riches.
So he does not sleep well.
13 I have seen another terrible thing that happens on the earth.
Some people may store their riches,
but it does not help them in a time of trouble.
14 Something may happen in the future
that causes their money to disappear.
After they die,
no money remains for their children.
15 When people are born,
they bring nothing with them.
When they die,
they take nothing away with them.
All their hard work finally leaves them with nothing.
16 This is also a terrible thing to happen.
People leave this earth with nothing,
as they came into it with nothing.
All their hard work has been useless,
like someone who tries to catch the wind.
17 Even if people are rich, they do not enjoy their food.
They suffer all through their lives.
They are upset, angry and sick.
18 But I realized that there is one good thing for people to do. We should be happy to eat and to drink. And we should enjoy the hard work that we do on the earth. That is what God wants us to do during the short time that he has given us on this earth. 19 God gives some people a lot of money and valuable things. He helps them to enjoy those things and to be happy with their work. All of this is a gift from God. 20 People like that do not think a lot about what has happened in their lives. God helps them to be happy as they are busy with their work.
6 I have seen another terrible thing that happens on the earth. It causes people to have a lot of trouble. 2 God may give someone lots of money and valuable things. People also respect that person. He has everything that he wants. He has worked hard to get them. But God does not allow him to enjoy those things. Instead, a stranger enjoys all that person's things. This has no purpose. It is a terrible thing to happen to someone.
3 Someone may have many children and he may live for a long time. But even if he lives until he is very old, he may not enjoy a good life. After he dies, people may not bury him with honour. His life would be useless. Even a child that is dead at birth is happier than that person. That is what I think. 4 The child's birth has no purpose. He immediately goes to a dark place. Nobody ever speaks his name. 5 He never sees the light of day. He never knows anything. But he enjoys more rest than that rich person. 6 A rich person might live for 2,000 years. But if he never enjoys his riches, it would be better if he died at birth. Remember that after death, we all go into our graves.
7 The reason people work so hard is to get food.
But they never have enough to eat.
8 Does a wise person have a better life than a foolish person?
No, he does not!
Does it help a poor person if he knows how to live well?
No!
9 It is good to enjoy the things that we have.
That is better than to want more things all the time.
If you always try to get more things, that has no purpose.
It is like somebody who tries to catch the wind.
10 Everything that is here today already has its name.
Everyone knows what we humans are like.
It is useless to argue with someone who is more powerful than we are.
11 If we talk too much,
we will say silly things.
So it will not help anyone to talk with many words.
12 Nobody knows the best way for us to live our lives.
We live for only a few years
and our lives seem to have no purpose.
Our lives quickly disappear, like a shadow.
Nobody can tell us what will happen on the earth after our death.
Believers belong to God
14 Do not become united with people who do not believe in Christ. God has made you right with himself. Right and wrong cannot work together. Light and dark cannot join together. 15 Christ will never agree with the Devil. People who believe in Christ are completely different from people who do not believe. 16 Idols do not belong in God's house. Remember that we believers are the house of the God who lives for ever. This is what God has said:
‘I will make my home with them and I will live among them.
I will be their God and they will be my people.’[a]
17 And so, the Lord says:
‘Come out from among them and be separate.
Do not touch anything that is disgusting.
Then I will accept you.’[b]
18 He also says:
‘I will be a Father to you.
You will be my sons and my daughters.
That is what the Almighty Lord God says.’[c]
Paul loves the believers at Corinth
7 So, my friends, God has promised these things to us. So we must keep ourselves clean from everything that makes our bodies or our spirits unclean. We must respect and obey God. Then we will become more and more like him.
2 Be friends with us. We have done nothing wrong to any of you. We have not hurt anyone. We have not cheated anyone. 3 I am not saying this to make you feel ashamed. As I have told you before, you are our special friends. We will continue to love you, whether we live together or we die together.
4 I know you and I trust you. I am proud of you. You have helped me to be strong. So, even when we have many troubles, I am still very happy.
5 When we arrived in Macedonia, our bodies did not rest at all.[d] We had many kinds of trouble. All round us, people quarrelled with us. Inside us, we were afraid. 6 But when people feel upset, God helps them to be strong. And God made us happy when Titus arrived. 7 God comforted us not only because Titus came to us. He comforted us also by what Titus told us about you. He said that you had helped him to be strong. He told us that you want to see me. He told us that you are very sad about what happened. He told us also that you are ready to help me. Because of what Titus told us about you, I was very happy.
The sons of Korah wrote this psalm for the music leader.
God rules the earth!
47 People from every nation,
clap your hands together.
Shout aloud to God,
with the sound of happy songs.
2 The Lord, the Most High God, is wonderful.
He is the great King
who rules over the whole earth.
3 He has won the battle against our enemies,
and those nations are now under our power.
4 He chose a special land to belong to us.
Jacob's descendants are proud of that land.
They are his own people that he loves.
Selah.
5 God has gone up to sit on his throne,
while the people shout aloud.
The Lord has gone up there,
while the trumpets make a loud noise.
6 Sing to praise God! Yes, sing!
Sing to praise our king! Sing!
7 God is the King who rules over the whole earth!
So sing a special song to praise him!
8 God rules over the nations.
God is sitting on his holy throne.
9 The leaders of the nations have met together.
They have joined with the people who serve Abraham's God.[a]
God has authority over all the world's rulers
and their armies.
Everyone should praise him,
for he is great!
16 Someone may be cruel to poor people to make himself rich.
Someone else may give gifts to rich people to make them his friends.
But both those people will become poor in the end.
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