Formation Journal Reading Plan

4:1 Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

4:2 Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive.

4:3 Yes, better than them both is him who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

4:4 Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

4:5 The fool folds his hands together and ruins himself.

4:6 Better is a handful, with quietness, than two handfuls with labor and chasing after wind.

4:7 Then I returned and saw vanity under the sun.

4:8 There is one who is alone, and he has neither son nor brother. There is no end to all of his labor, neither are his eyes satisfied with wealth. “For whom then, do I labor, and deprive my soul of enjoyment?” This also is vanity. Yes, it is a miserable business.

4:9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.

4:10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls, and doesn’t have another to lift him up.

4:11 Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one keep warm alone?

4:12 If a man prevails against one who is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

4:13 Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who doesn’t know how to receive admonition any more.

4:14 For out of prison he came forth to be king; yes, even in his kingdom he was born poor.

4:15 I saw all the living who walk under the sun, that they were with the youth, the other, who succeeded him.

4:16 There was no end of all the people, even of all them over whom he was—yet those who come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

5:1 Guard your steps when you go to God’s house; for to draw near to listen is better than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they don’t know that they do evil.

5:2 Don’t be rash with your mouth, and don’t let your heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and you on earth. Therefore let your words be few.

5:3 For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool’s speech with a multitude of words.

5:4 When you vow a vow to God, don’t defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow.

5:5 It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.

5:6 Don’t allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Don’t protest before the messenger that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?

5:7 For in the multitude of dreams there are vanities, as well as in many words: but you must fear God.

5:8 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.

5:9 Moreover the profit of the earth is for all. The king profits from the field.

5:10 He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity.

5:11 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?

5:12 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.

5:13 There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.

5:14 Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand.

5:15 As he came forth from his mother’s womb, naked shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand.

5:16 This also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit does he have who labors for the wind?

5:17 All his days he also eats in darkness, he is frustrated, and has sickness and wrath.

5:18 Behold, that which I have seen to be good and proper is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor, in which he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; for this is his portion.

5:19 Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God.

5:20 For he shall not often reflect on the days of his life; because God occupies him with the joy of his heart.

69:1 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Lilies.” By David. Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck!

69:2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

69:3 I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail, looking for my God.

69:4 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.

69:5 God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren’t hidden from you.

69:6 Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord Yahweh of Armies. Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.

69:7 Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.

69:8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.

69:9 For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

69:10 When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach.

69:11 When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.

69:12 Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.

69:13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation.

69:14 Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.

69:15 Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.

2:5 But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow, not to me, but in part (that I not press too heavily) to you all.

2:6 Sufficient to such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the many;

2:7 so that on the contrary you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow.

2:8 Therefore I beg you to confirm your love toward him.

2:9 For to this end I also wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether you are obedient in all things.

2:10 Now I also forgive whomever you forgive anything. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ,

2:11 that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

2:12 Now when I came to Troas for the Good News of Christ, and when a door was opened to me in the Lord,

2:13 I had no relief for my spirit, because I didn’t find Titus, my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went out into Macedonia.

2:14 Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place.

2:15 For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in those who are saved, and in those who perish;

2:16 to the one a stench from death to death; to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

2:17 For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

3:1 Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as do some, letters of commendation to you or from you?

3:2 You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;

3:3 being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh.

3:4 Such confidence we have through Christ toward God;

3:5 not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;

3:6 who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.