Formation Journal Reading Plan

6:1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy on men:

6:2 a man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him no power to eat of it, but an alien eats it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

6:3 If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:

6:4 for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.

6:5 Moreover it has not seen the sun nor known it. This has rest rather than the other.

6:6 Yes, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet fails to enjoy good, don’t all go to one place?

6:7 All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

6:8 For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living?

6:9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

6:10 Whatever has been, its name was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he.

6:11 For there are many words that create vanity. What does that profit man?

6:12 For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

7:1 A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death better than the day of one’s birth.

7:2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart.

7:3 Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the face the heart is made good.

7:4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

7:5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.

7:6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity.

7:7 Surely extortion makes the wise man foolish; and a bribe destroys the understanding.

7:8 Better is the end of a thing than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

7:9 Don’t be hasty in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools.

7:10 Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not ask wisely about this.

7:11 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance. Yes, it is more excellent for those who see the sun.

7:12 For wisdom is a defense, even as money is a defense; but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

7:13 Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked?

7:14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; yes, God has made the one side by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out anything after him.

7:15 All this have I seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing.

7:16 Don’t be overly righteous, neither make yourself overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?

7:17 Don’t be too wicked, neither be foolish. Why should you die before your time?

7:18 It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also from that don’t withdraw your hand; for he who fears God will come forth from them all.

7:19 Wisdom is a strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.

7:20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth, who does good and doesn’t sin.

7:21 Also don’t take heed to all words that are spoken, lest you hear your servant curse you;

7:22 for often your own heart knows that you yourself have likewise cursed others.

7:23 All this have I proved in wisdom. I said, “I will be wise;” but it was far from me.

7:24 That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out?

7:25 I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity, and that foolishness is madness.

7:26 I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.

7:27 “Behold, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “one to another, to find out the scheme;

7:28 which my soul still seeks; but I have not found. One man among a thousand have I found; but I have not found a woman among all those.

7:29 Behold, this only have I found: that God made man upright; but they search for many schemes.”

69:16 Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.

69:17 Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!

69:18 Draw near to my soul, and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies.

69:19 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you.

69:20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.

69:21 They also gave me gall for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

69:22 Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap.

69:23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent.

69:24 Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.

69:25 Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents.

69:26 For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.

69:27 Charge them with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness.

69:28 Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.

69:29 But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me.

69:30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

69:31 It will please Yahweh better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs.

69:32 The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live.

69:33 For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people.

69:34 Let heaven and earth praise him; the seas, and everything that moves therein!

69:35 For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah. They shall settle there, and own it.

69:36 The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.

3:7 But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face; which was passing away:

3:8 won’t service of the Spirit be with much more glory?

3:9 For if the service of condemnation has glory, the service of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.

3:10 For most certainly that which has been made glorious has not been made glorious in this respect, by reason of the glory that surpasses.

3:11 For if that which passes away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

3:12 Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness of speech,

3:13 and not as Moses, who put a veil on his face, that the children of Israel wouldn’t look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away.

3:14 But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes away.

3:15 But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.

3:16 But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

3:18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.

4:1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint.

4:2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

4:3 Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who perish;

4:4 in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.

4:5 For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake;

4:6 seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

4:7 But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.

4:8 We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair;

4:9 pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed;

4:10 always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

4:11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh.

4:12 So then death works in us, but life in you.

4:13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” We also believe, and therefore also we speak;

4:14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will present us with you.

4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

4:16 Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.

4:17 For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory;

4:18 while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.