Ecclesiastes 7:25

¹³The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.

¹³Get up! Sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for the LORD, the God of Israel, says, “There is a devoted thing among you, Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted thing from among you.”

¹³I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God ^[+] has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with. ¹⁴I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a chasing after wind. ¹⁵That which is crooked can’t be made straight; and that which is lacking can’t be counted. ¹⁶I said to myself, “Behold, I have obtained for myself great wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem. Yes, my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a chasing after wind.

¹¹As a dog that returns to his vomit, so is a fool who repeats his folly.

²⁰Therefore I began to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor in which I had labored under the sun.

³knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts ⁴and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” ⁵For they willfully forget that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water by the word of God, ⁶by which means the world that existed then, being overflowed with water, perished. ⁷But the heavens that exist now and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

⁸But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but he is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

¹⁶Moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there. ¹⁷I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.”

²⁷“Behold, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “to one another, to find an explanation

¹⁵Then I said in my heart, “As it happens to the fool, so will it happen even to me; and why was I then more wise?” Then I said in my heart that this also is vanity.

³In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not slumber.

⁴For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus,^[+] and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for judgment; ⁵and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, ⁶and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way, ⁷and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked ⁸(for that righteous man dwelling among them was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds), ⁹then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,