My days are past; my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.
“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the grave is ready for me.
They make night into day; ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and come to their end without hope.
The plans of the mind belong to mortals, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.
The human mind may devise many plans, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
I said: In the noontide of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.
Take counsel together, but it shall be brought to naught; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.”
Who can command and have it done, if the Lord has not ordained it?
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as I have among the rest of the gentiles.