Death and loss

⁷ On this mountain He will swallow up the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations;

⁸ He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

² It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.

³ This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.

⁴ There is hope, however, for anyone who is among the living; for even a live dog is better than a dead lion.

⁵ For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten.

⁶ Their love, their hate, and their envy have already vanished, and they will never again have a share in all that is done under the sun.

I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from Death. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting? Compassion is hidden from My eyes.

¹ “Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.

² Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

³ Do You open Your eyes to one like this? Will You bring him into judgment before You?

⁴ Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!

⁵ Since his days are determined and the number of his months is with You, and since You have set limits that he cannot exceed,

⁶ look away from him and let him rest, so he can enjoy his day as a hired hand.

¹⁰ But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?

¹¹ As water disappears from the sea and a river becomes parched and dry,

¹² so a man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no more, he will not be awakened or roused from sleep.

¹³ If only You would hide me in Sheol and conceal me until Your anger has passed! If only You would appoint a time for me and then remember me!

¹⁴ When a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, until my renewal comes.

⁴⁷ Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men!

⁴⁸ What man can live and never see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.

¹³ Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope.

¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.

¹⁵ By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep.

¹⁴ Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil,

¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

²⁷ Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,

²⁸ so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.

⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

⁵⁵ “Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?”

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

¹ In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”

² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying,

³ “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

¹⁸ I said to myself, “As for the sons of men, God tests them so that they may see for themselves that they are but beasts.”

¹⁹ For the fates of both men and beasts are the same: As one dies, so dies the other—they all have the same breath. Man has no advantage over the animals, since everything is futile.

²⁰ All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.

²¹ Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and the spirit of the animal descends into the earth?

¹⁵ As a man came from his mother’s womb, so he will depart again, naked as he arrived. He takes nothing for his labor to carry in his hands.

¹⁶ This too is a grievous evil: Exactly as a man is born, so he will depart. What does he gain as he toils for the wind?

¹ A good name is better than fine perfume, and one’s day of death is better than his day of birth.

² It is better to enter a house of mourning than a house of feasting, since death is the end of every man, and the living should take this to heart.

³ Sorrow is better than laughter, for a sad countenance is good for the heart.

⁴ The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

¹ Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of adversity come and the years approach of which you will say, “I find no pleasure in them,”

² before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is darkened, and the clouds return after the rain,

³ on the day the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men stoop, when those grinding cease because they are few and those watching through windows see dimly,

⁴ when the doors to the street are shut and the sound of the mill fades away, when one rises at the sound of a bird and all the daughters of song grow faint,

⁵ when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels— for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.

⁶ Remember Him before the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is crushed, before the pitcher is shattered at the spring and the wheel is broken at the well,

⁷ before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

⁶ A voice says, “Cry out!” And I asked, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field.

⁷ The grass withers and the flowers fall when the breath of the LORD blows on them; indeed, the people are grass.

After the servant had picked him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

⁵⁹ While they were stoning him, Stephen appealed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

⁶⁰ Falling on his knees, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

⁵⁰ When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He yielded up His spirit.

⁵¹ At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split.

⁵² The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

But Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed His last.

Later, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill, and his sickness grew worse and worse, until no breath remained in him.

⁴³ After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

⁴⁴ The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth. “Unwrap him and let him go,” Jesus told them.

¹⁸ While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

¹⁹ when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

¹² As He approached the town gate, He saw a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.

¹³ When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said, “Do not weep.”

¹⁴ Then He went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. “Young man,” He said, “I tell you, get up!”

While He was still speaking, someone arrived from the house of the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he told Jairus. “Do not bother the Teacher anymore.”

⁴⁴ It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour.

⁴⁵ The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn down the middle.

⁴⁶ Then Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.” And when He had said this, He breathed His last.

²³ When Jesus entered the house of the synagogue leader, He saw the flute players and the noisy crowd.

²⁴ “Go away,” He told them. “The girl is not dead, but asleep.” And they laughed at Him.

²⁵ After the crowd had been put outside, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up.

¹⁸ As soon as the ark of God was mentioned, Eli fell backward from his chair by the city gate, and being old and heavy, he broke his neck and died. And Eli had judged Israel forty years.

¹⁹ Now Eli’s daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and about to give birth. When she heard the news of the capture of God’s ark and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband, she collapsed and gave birth, for her labor pains overtook her.

²⁰ As she was dying, the women attending to her said, “Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son!” But she did not respond or pay any heed.

When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his bed.

¹⁸ On the seventh day the child died. But David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Look, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not listen to us. So how can we tell him the child is dead? He may even harm himself.”

¹⁹ When David saw that his servants were whispering to one another, he perceived that the child was dead. So he asked his servants, “Is the child dead?” “He is dead,” they replied.

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.

But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held in its clutches.

At that time, however, she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upper room.

Then Peter sent them all out of the room. He knelt down and prayed, and turning toward her body, he said, “Tabitha, get up!” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.

He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.