People are only shadows as they go here and there. They rush around, but it doesn’t mean anything. They pile up wealth, but they don’t know who will finally get it.“ Lord, what can I look forward to now? You are the only hope I have.
My life is almost over. My plans are destroyed. Yet the desires of my heartturn night into day. Even though it’s dark,‘ Light is nearby.’Suppose the only home I can hope for is a grave. And suppose I make my bed in the darkness of death.Suppose I say to the grave,‘ You are like a father to me.’ And suppose I say to its worms,‘ You are like a mother or sister to me.’Then what hope do I have? Who can give me any hope?
May the Mighty God cause him to show you mercy. May the man let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. And if I lose my sons, I lose them.”
Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the hard times we had in Asia Minor. We were having a lot of trouble. It was far more than we could stand. We even thought we were going to die.In fact, we felt as if we were under the sentence of death. But that happened so that we would not depend on ourselves but on God. He raises the dead to life.God has saved us from deadly dangers. And he will continue to do it. We have put our hope in him. He will continue to save us.
We sent him so that no one would be upset by times of testing. You know very well that we have to go through times of testing.In fact, when we were with you, here is what we kept telling you. We were telling you that our enemies would make us suffer. As you know very well, it has turned out that way.
