Then the king answered, "I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided:"
NIV
The king answered, I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see the thing is gone from me and because you see that my word [against you] is sure:
AMP
The king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me.
KJV
"You have said, 'It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty?"
NIV
You have said, It is useless to serve God, and what profit is it if we keep His ordinances and walk gloomily and as if in mourning apparel before the Lord of hosts?
AMP
Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
KJV
What advantage have the wise over fools? What do the poor gain by knowing how to conduct themselves before others?
NIV
For what advantage has the wise man over the fool [being worldly-wise is not the secret to happiness]? What advantage has the poor man who has learned how to walk before the living [publicly, with men's eyes upon him; being poor is not the secret to happiness either]?
AMP
For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?
KJV
"Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, setting his nest on high to escape the clutches of ruin!"
NIV
Woe to him who obtains wicked gain for his house, [who thinks by so doing] to set his nest on high that he may be preserved from calamity and delivered from the power of evil!
AMP
Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!
KJV
"I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes – a people without understanding will come to ruin!"
NIV
I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, for [the fathers and husbands] themselves go aside in order to be alone with women who prostitute themselves for gain, and they sacrifice at the altar with dedicated harlots [who surrender their chastity in honor of the goddess]. Therefore the people without understanding shall stumble and fall and come to ruin.
AMP
I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.
KJV
"Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion, for I will give you horns of iron; I will give you hooves of bronze, and you will break to pieces many nations." You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the LORD, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
NIV
Arise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion! For I will make your horn iron and I will make your hoofs bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples, and I will devote their gain to the Lord and their treasure to the Lord of all the earth. [Zech. 12:1-8; 14:14.]AMP
Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
KJV
This too is a grievous evil: As everyone comes, so they depart, and what do they gain, since they toil for the wind?
NIV
And this also is a serious and severe evil--that in all points as he came, so shall he go; and what gain has he who labors for the wind? [I Tim. 6:6.]AMP
And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?
KJV
