Category: Ecclesiastes

[7:1] A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth.

[7:2] It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.

[7:3] Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.

[7:4] The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

[7:5] It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.

[7:6] For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity.

[7:7] Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

[7:8] Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

[7:9] Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.

[7:10] Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

[7:11] Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun.

[7:12] For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

[7:13] Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?

[7:14] In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

[7:15] In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.

[7:16] Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?

[7:17] Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?

[7:18] It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.

[7:19] Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.

[7:20] Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

[7:21] Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you.

[7:22] Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.

[7:23] All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me.

[7:24] That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?

[7:25] I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness.

[7:26] And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.

[7:27] Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things—

[7:28] which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found.

[7:29] See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

[8:1] Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

[8:2] I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him.

[8:3] Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases.

[8:4] For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?”

[8:5] Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way.

[8:6] For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him.

[8:7] For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be?

[8:8] No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.

[8:9] All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.

[8:10] Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.

[8:11] Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.

[8:12] Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him.

[8:13] But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

[8:14] There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

[8:15] And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

[8:16] When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep,

[8:17] then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.

[9:1] But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him.

[9:2] It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath.

[9:3] This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

[9:4] But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

[9:5] For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.

[9:6] Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

[9:7] Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

[9:8] Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.

[9:9] Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.

[9:10] Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

[11:1] Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.

[11:2] Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.

[11:3] If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.

[11:4] He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

[11:5] As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

[11:6] In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

[11:7] Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

[11:8] So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

[11:9] Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

[11:10] Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

[12:1] Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

[12:2] before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain,

[12:3] in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed,

[12:4] and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low—

[12:5] they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets—

[12:6] before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern,

[12:7] and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

[12:8] Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.