How short you have made my life! In your sight my lifetime seems nothing. Indeed every living being is no more than a puff of wind,

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

I have seen everything done in this world, and I tell you, it is all useless. It is like chasing the wind.

I decided to enjoy myself and find out what happiness is. But I found that this is useless, too.

Driven on by my desire for wisdom, I decided to cheer myself up with wine and have a good time. I thought that this might be the best way people can spend their short lives on earth.

I planted gardens and orchards, with all kinds of fruit trees in them;

I bought many slaves, and there were slaves born in my household. I owned more livestock than anyone else who had ever lived in Jerusalem.

Yes, I was great, greater than anyone else who had ever lived in Jerusalem, and my wisdom never failed me.

Then I thought about all that I had done and how hard I had worked doing it, and I realized that it didn't mean a thing. It was like chasing the wind---of no use at all.

So I came to regret that I had worked so hard.

You work and worry your way through life, and what do you have to show for it?

Here is someone who lives alone. He has no son, no brother, yet he is always working, never satisfied with the wealth he has. For whom is he working so hard and denying himself any pleasure? This is useless, too---and a miserable way to live.

She gets up before daylight to prepare food for her family and to tell her servant women what to do.

She is a hard worker, strong and industrious.

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 do all our work just to get something to eat, but we never have enough.

I lie down and sleep, and all night long the LORD protects me.

When I lie down, I go to sleep in peace; you alone, O LORD, keep me perfectly safe.

Workers may or may not have enough to eat, but at least they can get a good night's sleep. The rich, however, have so much that they stay awake worrying.

So then, people will say, 'I went to sleep and woke up refreshed.'

I will make a covenant with them that guarantees their security. I will get rid of all the dangerous animals in the land, so that my sheep can live safely in the fields and sleep in the forests.

So Peter was kept in jail, but the people of the church were praying earnestly to God for him.

The night before Herod was going to bring him out to the people, Peter was sleeping between two guards. He was tied with two chains, and there were guards on duty at the prison gate.