The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind. I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me. Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.

The LORD says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is near and my righteousness will soon be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath without profaning it and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD speak, saying, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people.” Do not let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For the LORD says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant, I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.

Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded that the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem be brought to him, that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, might drink from them. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of God’s house which was at Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, drank from them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour, the fingers of a man’s hand came out and wrote near the lamp stand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. The king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s face was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his thighs were loosened, and his knees struck one against another.

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. Dominion was given him, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and his kingdom one that will not be destroyed. “As for me, Daniel, my spirit was grieved within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near to one of those who stood by, and asked him the truth concerning all this. “So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things. ‘These great animals, which are four, are four kings, who will arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.’

If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don’t marvel at the matter, for one official is eyed by a higher one, and there are officials over them. Moreover the profit of the earth is for all. The king profits from the field. He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes? The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.

The LORD says: “The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you, and they will be yours. They will go after you. They shall come over in chains. They will bow down to you. They will make supplication to you: ‘Surely God is in you; and there is no one else. There is no other god. Most certainly you are a God who has hidden yourself, God of Israel, the Savior.’” They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together. Israel will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation. You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting. For the LORD who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited says: “I am the LORD. There is no other. I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the LORD, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.

Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not hurt me, because innocence was found in me before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.” Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. The king commanded, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions—them, their children, and their wives; and the lions mauled them, and broke all their bones in pieces before they came to the bottom of the den. Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages who dwell in all the earth: “Peace be multiplied to you.

“But you who forsake the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Fortune, and who fill up mixed wine to Destiny; I will destine you to the sword, and you will all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you didn’t answer. When I spoke, you didn’t listen; but you did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn’t delight.” Therefore the Lord GOD says, “Behold, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry; behold, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty. Behold, my servants will rejoice, but you will be disappointed. Behold, my servants will sing for joy of heart, but you will cry for sorrow of heart, and will wail for anguish of spirit. You will leave your name for a curse to my chosen, and the Lord GOD will kill you. He will call his servants by another name, so that he who blesses himself on the earth will bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears on the earth will swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes.

There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat, to drink, and to be joyful: for that will accompany him in his labor all the days of his life which God has given him under the sun. When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (even though eyes see no sleep day or night), then I saw all the work of God, that man can’t find out the work that is done under the sun, because however much a man labors to seek it out, yet he won’t find it. Yes even though a wise man thinks he can comprehend it, he won’t be able to find it.