Lexicon :: Strong's H5999 - ʿāmāl

“God has not observed wickedness in Jacob [for he is forgiven],

Nor has He seen trouble in Israel.

The LORD their God is with Israel,

And the shout of their King is among the people.

Because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,

Nor hide trouble from my eyes.

“As I have seen, those who plow wickedness

And those who sow trouble and harm harvest it.

“For affliction does not come forth from the dust,

Nor does trouble spring forth from the ground.

So am I allotted months of futility and suffering,

And [long] nights of trouble and misery are appointed to me.

“For you would forget your trouble;

You would remember it as waters that have passed by.

“They conceive mischief and bring forth wickedness,

And their inmost soul prepares deceit and fraud.”

“I have heard many such things;

Wearisome and miserable comforters are you all.

Behold, the [wicked and irreverent] man is pregnant with sin,

And he conceives mischief and gives birth to lies.

His mischief will return on his own head,

And his violence will come down on the top of his head [like loose dirt].

His mouth is full of curses and deceit (fraud) and oppression;

Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness [injustice and sin].

You have seen it, for You have noted mischief and vexation (irritation) to take it into Your hand.

The unfortunate commits himself to You;

You are the helper of the fatherless.

Look upon my affliction and my trouble,

And forgive all my sins.

Day and night they go around her walls;

Wickedness and mischief are in her midst.

They are not in trouble as other men,

Nor are they plagued like mankind.

When I considered how to understand this,

It was too great an effort for me and too painful

The days of our life are [fn]seventy years—

Or even, if because of strength, eighty years;

Yet their pride [in additional years] is only labor and sorrow,

For it is soon gone and we fly away.

Can a throne of destruction be allied with You,

One which frames and devises mischief by decree [under the sacred name of law]?

He gave them the lands of the nations [of Canaan],

So that they would possess the fruits of those peoples’ labor,

Therefore He humbled their heart with hard labor;

They stumbled and there was no one to help.

“Those who surround me raise their heads;

May the mischief of their own lips come upon them.

For their minds plot violence,

And their lips talk of trouble [for the innocent].

Let him drink and forget his poverty

And no longer remember his trouble.

What advantage does man have from all his work

Which he does [fn]under the sun (while earthbound)?

So I hated all the fruit (gain) of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will succeed me.

There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and assure himself that there is good in his labor. Even this, I have seen, is from the hand of God.

I have seen that every [effort in] labor and every skill in work comes from man’s rivalry with his neighbor. This too is vanity (futility, false pride) and chasing after the wind.

Behold, here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat and drink, and to find enjoyment in all the labor in which he labors under the sun during the few days of his life which God gives him—for this is his [allotted] reward.

All the labor of man is for his mouth [for self-preservation and enjoyment], and yet the desire [of his soul] is not satisfied.

Woe (judgment is coming) to those [judges] who issue evil statutes,

And to those [magistrates] who constantly record unjust and oppressive decisions,

As a result of the [fn]anguish of His soul,

He shall see it and be satisfied;

By His knowledge [of what He has accomplished] the Righteous One,

My Servant, shall justify the many [making them righteous—upright before God, in right standing with Him],

For He shall bear [the responsibility for] their sins.