Fear God
5 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. yTo draw near to zlisten is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. 2 1 Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore alet your words be few. 3 For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.
4 bWhen you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. 5 It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. 6 Let not your mouth lead you2 into sin, and do not say before the messenger3 that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? 7 For when dreams increase and cwords grow many, dthere is vanity;4 but5 eGod is the one you must fear.
The Vanity of Wealth and Honor
8 If you see in a province the foppression of the poor and the violation of gjustice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. 9 But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.6
10 He who loves money hwill not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. 11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? 12 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
13 iThere is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, 14 and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. 15 jAs he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and kshall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. 16 This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what lgain is there to him who toils for the wind? 17 Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.
18 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to meat and drink and find enjoyment7 in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the nfew days of his life that God has given him, for this is his olot. 19 Everyone also to whom God has given pwealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—qthis is the gift of God. 20 For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.
6 rThere is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: 2 a man to whom God gives swealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, tbut a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity;1 it is a grievous evil. 3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is unot satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a vstillborn child is wbetter off than he. 4 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. 5 Moreover, it has not xseen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. 6 Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy2 no good—ydo not all go to the one place?
7 zAll the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.3 8 For awhat advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? 9 Better is the bsight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a cstriving after wind.
10 dWhatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. 11 eThe more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? 12 For who knows what is good for man while he lives the ffew days of his gvain4 life, which he passes hlike a shadow? For iwho can tell man what will be after him under the sun?
The Contrast of Wisdom and Folly
7 jA good name is better than precious ointment,
and kthe day of death than the day of birth.
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.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter,
for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
5 It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise
than to hear the song of fools.
6 For as the crackling of lthorns under a pot,
so is the laughter of the fools;
this also is vanity.1
7 Surely moppression drives the wise into madness,
and a nbribe corrupts the heart.
8 Better is the end of a thing than its beginning,
and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
9 Be not quick in your spirit to become oangry,
for anger lodges in the heart2 of fools.
10 Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
11 pWisdom is good with an inheritance,
an advantage to those who qsee the sun.
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.
13 Consider the work of God:
rwho can make straight what he has made crooked?
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 sman may not find out tanything that will be after him.
15 In my uvain3 life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and vthere is a wicked man who wprolongs his life in his evildoing. 16 Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die xbefore your time? 18 It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who yfears God shall come out from both of them.
19 Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.
20 zSurely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
21 Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.
23 All this I have tested by awisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. 24 That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?
25 I turned my heart to know and to bsearch out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of cfolly and the foolishness that is madness. 26 And I find something more dbitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. eHe who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. 27 Behold, this is what I found, says the fPreacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— 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. 29 See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.
Keep the King’s Command
8 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.
2 I say:1 Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him.2 3 Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. 4 For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” 5 Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way.3 6 For gthere is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble4 lies heavy on him. 7 For he does not know what is to be, for hwho can tell him how it will be? 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. 9 All this I observed while iapplying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.
Those Who Fear God Will Do Well
10 Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised5 in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.6 11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, jthe heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. 12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and kprolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who lfear God, because they fear before him. 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.
Man Cannot Know God’s Ways
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 mthere are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15 And I commend joy, for man has nnothing better under the sun but to oeat 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.
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, 17 then I saw all the pwork 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.
Death Comes to All
9 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are qin the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. 2 It is the same for all, since rthe same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,1 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. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, sthe 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. 4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, but tthe dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the umemory of them is forgotten. 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.
Enjoy Life with the One You Love
7 Go, veat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
8 Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.
9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your wvain2 life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your xportion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 yWhatever your hand finds to do, zdo it with your might,3 for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
Wisdom Better Than Folly
11 aAgain I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. 12 For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.
13 I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. 14 bThere was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. 15 But there was found in it a cpoor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet dno one remembered that poor man. 16 But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.
17 The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. 18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
