bad luck

³⁵And so, do not lose your confidence, which has a great reward. ³⁶For it is necessary for you to be patient, so that, by doing the will of God, you may receive the promise.

²³Then he went up from there into Bethel. And as he was ascending along the way, little boys departed from the city. And they were mocking him, saying: “Go up, bald head! Go up, bald head!” ²⁴And when he had looked back, he saw them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two bears went out from the forest, and they wounded forty-two boys among them.

¹⁷No object which has been formed to use against you will succeed. And every tongue that resists you in judgment, you shall judge. This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and this is their justice with me, says the Lord.

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with that future glory which shall be revealed in us.

³³Destitution in the house of the impious is from the Lord. But the habitations of the just shall be blessed.

²I will go before you. And I will humble the glorious ones of the earth. I will shatter the gates of brass, and I will break apart the bars of iron. ³And I will give you hidden treasures and the knowledge of secret things, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls your name.

³³But whoever will listen to me shall rest without terror, and shall have full enjoyment of abundance, without fear of evils.”

¹⁰And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord has been invoked over you, and they shall fear you. ¹¹The Lord will cause you to be abundant in every good thing: in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your land, which the Lord swore to your fathers that he would give to you. ¹²The Lord will open his excellent treasury, the heavens, so that it may distribute rain in due time. And he will bless all the works of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you yourself will borrow nothing from anyone. ¹³And the Lord will appoint you as the head, and not as the tail. And you shall be always above, and not beneath. But only if you will listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I entrust to you this day, and will keep and do them, ¹⁴and will not turn aside from them, neither to the right, nor to the left, nor follow strange gods, nor worship them.

¹⁷I will not die, but I will live. And I will declare the works of the Lord.

¹⁵And they have been joyful against me, and they joined together. Scourges have been gathered over me, and I was ignorant of it. ¹⁶They have been scattered, yet they were unremorseful. They have tested me. They scoffed at me with scorn. They gnashed their teeth over me. ¹⁷Lord, when will you look down upon me? Restore my soul from before their malice, my only one from before the lions. ¹⁸I will confess to you in a great Church. I will praise you among a weighty people. ¹⁹May those who are my unjust adversaries not be glad over me: those who have hated me without cause, and who nod agreement with their eyes. ²⁰For indeed, they spoke peacefully to me; and speaking with passion to the earth, they intended deceit.

¹²For God loves mercy and truth. The Lord will give grace and glory.

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that all who believe in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.

⁷May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. Now I know that the Lord has saved his Christ. He will hear him from his holy heaven. The salvation of his right hand is in his power. ⁸Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God.

¹Cast your bread over running waters. For, after a long time, you shall find it again. ²Give a portion to seven, and indeed even to eight. For you do not know what evil may be upon the earth in the future. ³If the clouds have been filled, they will pour forth rain upon the earth. If a tree falls to the south, or to the north, or to whatever direction it may fall, there it shall remain. ⁴Whoever heeds the wind will not sow. And whoever considers the clouds will never reap. ⁵In the same manner that you do not know the way of the spirit, nor the way that bones are joined together in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you do not know the works of God, who is the Maker of all. ⁶In the morning, sow your seed, and in the evening, do not let your hand cease. For you do not know which of these may rise up, the one or the other. But if both rise up together, so much the better.

⁶For I am the Lord, and I do not change. And you, the sons of Jacob, have not been consumed.

⁸The book of this law shall not depart from your mouth. Instead, you shall meditate upon it, day and night, so that you may observe and do all the things that are written in it. Then you shall direct your way and understand it.

¹⁰For desire is the root of all evils. Some persons, hungering in this way, have strayed from the faith and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.

¹¹I turned myself toward another thing, and I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor wealth to the learned, nor grace to the skillful: but there is a time and an end for all these things.

¹¹And I will rebuke for your sakes the devourer, and he will not corrupt the fruit of your land. Neither will the vine in the field be barren, says the Lord of hosts.