But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and vanity; yet surely the justice {\i due} to me is with Jehovah, and my recompense with my God.\par
{\b A Song of Ascents; of Solomon.}\par\par\tab Except Jehovah build the house,\par\tab They labor in vain that build it:\par\tab Except Jehovah keep the city,\par\tab The watchman waketh but in vain.
and the anger of Jehovah be kindled against you, and he shut up the heavens, so that there shall be no rain, and the land shall not yield its fruit; and ye perish quickly from off the good land which Jehovah giveth you.
Through all that time, when one came to a heap of twenty {\i measures}, there were but ten; when one came to the winevat to draw out fifty {\i vessels}, there were but twenty.
In the day of thy planting thou hedgest it in, and in the morning thou makest thy seed to blossom; but the harvest fleeth away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.\par
For a fire is kindled in mine anger, And burneth unto the lowest Sheol, And devoureth the earth with its increase, And setteth on fire the foundations of the mountains.
For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; therefore thou plantest pleasant plants, and settest it with strange slips.
They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns; they have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing: and ye shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of Jehovah.\par