Pre-Game Proverb with John Rayner

Ecc 5:12  The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, Whether he eats little or much; But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep. 

Ecc 5:11  When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? 

Ecc 5:10  He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity.

Ecc 5:9  Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field. 

Ecc 5:8  Don’t be surprised if you see a poor person being oppressed by the powerful and if justice is being miscarried throughout the land. For every official is under orders from higher up, and matters of justice get lost in red tape and bureaucracy.

Ecc 5:6  Don’t let your mouth make you sin. And don’t defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make God angry, and he might wipe out everything you have achieved. Ecc 5:7  Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God instead.

Ecc 5:4  When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. Ecc 5:5  It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.

Ecc 5:3  Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool.

Ecc 5:1  As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil to make mindless offerings to God. Ecc 5:2  Don’t make rash promises, and don’t be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few.

Ecc 4:13  It is better to be a poor but wise youth than an old and foolish king who refuses all advice. Ecc 4:14  Such a youth could rise from poverty and succeed. He might even become king, though he has been in prison. Ecc 4:15  But then everyone rushes to the side of yet another youth who replaces him. Ecc 4:16  Endless crowds stand around him, but then another generation grows up and rejects h...

Ecc 4:9  Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. Ecc 4:10  If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Ecc 4:11  Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? Ecc 4:12  A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back...

Ecc 4:7  I observed yet another example of something meaningless under the sun. Ecc 4:8  This is the case of a man who is all alone, without a child or a brother, yet who works hard to gain as much wealth as he can. But then he asks himself, “Who am I working for? Why am I giving up so much pleasure now?” It is all so meaningless and depressing.

Ecc 4:5  “Fools fold their idle hands, leading them to ruin.”Ecc 4:6  And yet, “Better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.”

Ecc 4:4  Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind. 

Ecc 4:1  Again, I observed all the oppression that takes place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power, and their victims are helpless. Ecc 4:2  So I concluded that the dead are better off than the living. Ecc 4:3  But most fortunate of all are those who are not yet born. For they have not seen all the evil that is done under th...

Ecc 3:21  For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth? Ecc 3:22  So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is our lot in life. And no one can bring us back to see what happens after we die.

Ecc 3:18  I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals. Ecc 3:19  For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless! Ecc 3:20  Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust.

Ecc 3:17  I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”

Ecc 3:16  I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt!

Ecc 3:15  What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.

Ecc 3:14  And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him.

Ecc 3:13  also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.

Ecc 3:12  I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;

Ecc 3:11  Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

Ecc 3:9  What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? Ecc 3:10  I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.