What has happened before will happen again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing new in the whole world.

No one remembers what has happened in the past, and no one in days to come will remember what happens between now and then.

Whatever happens or can happen has already happened before. God makes the same thing happen again and again.

But the LORD God called out to the man, "Where are you?"

And he said to the man, "You listened to your wife and ate the fruit which I told you not to eat. Because of what you have done, the ground will be under a curse. You will have to work hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you.

You will have to work hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything, until you go back to the soil from which you were formed. You were made from soil, and you will become soil again."

We are all born weak and helpless. All lead the same short, troubled life.

Will you even look at me, God, or put me on trial and judge me?

no more than a shadow. All we do is for nothing; we gather wealth, but don't know who will get it.

'You are gods,' I said; 'all of you are children of the Most High.'

But you will die like mortals; your life will end like that of any prince."

As for us, our life is like grass. We grow and flourish like a wild flower;

How can anyone argue with him? He can ask a thousand questions that no one could ever answer.

God is so wise and powerful; no one can stand up against him.

If God were human, I could answer him; we could go to court to decide our quarrel.

Why do you accuse God of never answering our complaints?

(SEE 40:1)

Does a clay pot dare argue with its maker, a pot that is like all the others? Does the clay ask the potter what he is doing? Does the pot complain that its maker has no skill?

Do we dare say to our parents, "Why did you make me like this?"

Like a lion coming out of the thick woods along the Jordan River up to the green pasture land, I will come and make the Edomites run away suddenly from their country. Then the leader I choose will rule the nation. Who can be compared to me? Who would dare challenge me? What ruler could oppose me?

But one of you will say to me, "If this is so, how can God find fault with anyone? Who can resist God's will?"

But who are you, my friend, to talk back to God? A clay pot does not ask the man who made it, "Why did you make me like this?"