Saturday in Season after Pentecost

1Verse 1. These are the words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem: 2Verse 2. “Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!” 3Verse 3. What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun? 4Verse 4. Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. 5Verse 5. The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries back to where it rises. 6Verse 6. The wind blows southward, then turns northward; round and round it swirls, ever returning on its course. 7Verse 7. All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place from which the streams come, there again they flow. 8Verse 8. All things are wearisome, more than one can describe; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear content with hearing. 9Verse 9. What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 10Verse 10. Is there a case where one can say, “Look, this is new”? It has already existed in the ages before us. 11Verse 11. There is no remembrance of those who came before, and those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow after. 12Verse 12. I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13Verse 13. And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a miserable task God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them! 14Verse 14. I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind. 15Verse 15. What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted. 16Verse 16. I said to myself, “Behold, I have grown and increased in wisdom beyond all those before me who were over Jerusalem, and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.” 17Verse 17. So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind. 18Verse 18. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, and as knowledge grows, grief increases.

5Verse 5. Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land, marched up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years. 6Verse 6. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes. 7Verse 7. All this happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had worshiped other gods 8Verse 8. and walked in the customs of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites, as well as in the practices introduced by the kings of Israel. 9Verse 9. The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city, they built high places in all their cities. 10Verse 10. They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. 11Verse 11. They burned incense on all the high places like the nations that the LORD had driven out before them. They did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger. 12Verse 12. They served idols, although the LORD had told them, “You shall not do this thing.” 13Verse 13. Yet through all His prophets and seers, the LORD warned Israel and Judah, saying, “Turn from your wicked ways and keep My commandments and statutes, according to the entire Law that I commanded your fathers and delivered to you through My servants the prophets.” 14Verse 14. But they would not listen, and they stiffened their necks like their fathers, who did not believe the LORD their God. 15Verse 15. They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves, going after the surrounding nations that the LORD had commanded them not to imitate. 16Verse 16. They abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves two cast idols of calves and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the host of heaven and served Baal. 17Verse 17. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger. 18Verse 18. So the LORD was very angry with Israel, and He removed them from His presence. Only the tribe of Judah remained,