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

We grow and wither as quickly as flowers; we disappear like shadows.

" LORD, how long will I live? When will I die? Tell me how soon my life will end."

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

You carry us away like a flood; we last no longer than a dream. We are like weeds that sprout in the morning,

We are destroyed by your anger; we are terrified by your fury.

Our life is cut short by your anger; it fades away like a whisper.

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

then the wind blows on it, and it is gone--- no one sees it again.

How can anyone know what is best for us in this short, useless life of ours---a life that passes like a shadow? How can we know what will happen in the world after we die?

Work hard at whatever you do, because there will be no action, no thought, no knowledge, no wisdom in the world of the dead---and that is where you are going.

You must do this, because you know that the time has come for you to wake up from your sleep. For the moment when we will be saved is closer now than it was when we first believed.

The night is nearly over, day is almost here. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up weapons for fighting in the light.

Let us, then, go to him outside the camp and share his shame.

For there is no permanent city for us here on earth; we are looking for the city which is to come.

The end of all things is near. You must be self-controlled and alert, to be able to pray.

But do not forget one thing, my dear friends! There is no difference in the Lord's sight between one day and a thousand years; to him the two are the same.

The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead, he is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.

The world and everything in it that people desire is passing away; but those who do the will of God live forever.

Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God, who gave it to us.

Useless, useless, said the Philosopher. It is all useless.

After all this, there is only one thing to say: Have reverence for God, and obey his commands, because this is all that we were created for.

God is going to judge everything we do, whether good or bad, even things done in secret.

The LORD is going to devastate the earth and leave it desolate. He will twist the earth's surface and scatter its people.

Everyone will meet the same fate---the priests and the people, slaves and masters, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, rich and poor.

A voice cries out, "Proclaim a message!" "What message shall I proclaim?" I ask. "Proclaim that all human beings are like grass; they last no longer than wild flowers.

Yes, grass withers and flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever."

Now listen to me, you that say, "Today or tomorrow we will travel to a certain city, where we will stay a year and go into business and make a lot of money."

What you should say is this: "If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that."

As the scripture says, "All human beings are like grass, and all their glory is like wild flowers. The grass withers, and the flowers fall,