Ecclesiastes, starting at chapter 7
{7:1} A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death
better than the day of one's birth. {7:2} It is better to go to the
house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the
end of all men, and the living should take this to heart. {7:3} Sorrow
is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the face the heart is
made good. {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 to
hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.
{7:6} For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter
of the fool. This also is vanity. {7:7} Surely extortion makes the
wise man foolish; and a bribe destroys the understanding. {7:8} Better
is the end of a thing than its beginning.
The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. {7:9}
Don't be hasty in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the
bosom of fools. {7:10} Don't say, "Why were the former days better
than these?" For you do not ask wisely about this.
{7:11} Wisdom is as good as an inheritance. Yes, it is more
excellent for those who see the sun. {7:12} For wisdom is a defense,
even as money is a defense; but the excellency of knowledge is that
wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
{7:13} Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight,
which he has made crooked? {7:14} In the day of prosperity be joyful,
and in the day of adversity consider; yes, God has made the one side
by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out
anything after him.
{7:15} All this have I seen in my days of vanity: there is a
righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked
man who lives long in his evildoing. {7:16} Don't be overly righteous,
neither make yourself overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?
{7:17} Don't be too wicked, neither be foolish. Why should you die
before your time? {7:18} It is good that you should take hold of this.
Yes, also from that don't withdraw your hand; for he who fears God
will come forth from them all. {7:19} Wisdom is a 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 doesn't sin. {7:21} Also
don't take heed to all words that are spoken, lest you hear your
servant curse you; {7:22} for often your own heart knows that you
yourself have likewise cursed others. {7:23} All this have I proved in
wisdom. I said, "I will be wise"; but it was far from me. {7:24} That
which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out? {7:25}
I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to
seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is
stupidity, and that foolishness is madness.
{7:26} I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares
and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape
from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.
{7:27} "Behold, I have found this," says [1>]Kohelet[<1], "one to
another, to find out the scheme; {7:28} which my soul still seeks; but
I have not found. One man among a thousand have I found; but I have
not found a woman among all those. {7:29} Behold, this only have I
found: that God made man upright; but they search for many schemes."
{8:1} Who is like the wise man? 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
the oath to God. {8:3} Don't be hasty to go out of his presence. Don't
persist in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him, {8:4} for
the king's word is supreme. Who can say to him, "What are you doing?"
{8:5} Whoever keeps the commandment shall not come to harm, and his
wise heart will know the time and procedure. {8:6} For there is a time
and procedure for every purpose, although the misery of man is heavy
on him. {8:7} For he doesn't know that which will be; for who can tell
him how it will be? {8:8} There is no man who has power over the
spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day
of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness
deliver those who practice it.
{8:9} All this have I seen, and applied my mind to every work that
is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over
another to his hurt. {8:10} So I saw the wicked buried. Indeed they
came also from holiness. They went and were forgotten in the city
where they did this. This also is vanity. {8:11} Because sentence
against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of
the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. {8:12} Though a
sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I
know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent
before him. {8:13} But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither
shall he lengthen days like a shadow; because he doesn't fear God.
{8:14} There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are
righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked.
Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work
of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. {8:15} Then I
commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than
to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: for that will accompany him in
his labor all the days of his life which 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 the earth (for also there is that neither day
nor night sees sleep with his eyes), {8:17} then I saw all the work of
God, that man can't find out the work that is done under the sun,
because however much a man labors to seek it out, yet he won't find
it. Yes even though a wise man thinks he can comprehend it, he won't
be able to find it.
{9:1} For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this:
that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of
God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn't know it; all is before
them. {9:2} All things come alike to all. There is one event to the
righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the
unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn't sacrifice. As
is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears
an oath. {9:3} This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that
there is one event to all: yes also, the heart of the sons of men is
full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after
that they go to the dead. {9:4} For to him who is joined with all the
living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
{9:5} For the living know that they will die, but the dead don't know
anything, neither do they have any more a reward; for their memory is
forgotten. {9:6} Also their love, their hatred, and their envy has
perished long ago; neither have they any more a portion forever in
anything that is done under the sun.
{9:7} Go your way--eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with
a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works. {9:8} Let your
garments be always white, and don't let your head lack oil. {9:9} Live
joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of
vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity:
for that is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you labor
under the sun. {9:10} Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your
might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in
[2>]Sheol[<2], where you are going.
{9:11} I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to
the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the
wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of
skill; but time and chance happen to them all. {9:12} For man also
doesn't know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and
as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men
snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.
{9:13} I have also seen wisdom under the sun in this way, and it
seemed great to me. {9:14} There was a little city, and few men within
it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great
bulwarks against it. {9:15} Now a poor wise man was found in it, and
he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same
poor man. {9:16} Then I said, "Wisdom is better than strength."
Nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not
heard. {9:17} The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the
cry of him who rules among fools. {9:18} Wisdom is better than weapons
of war; but one sinner destroys much good.
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Footnotes:
[1] {7:27} the Preacher (or, Assembler)
[2] {9:10} Sheol is the place of the dead.
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