7 The Contrast of Wisdom and Folly

7:1 A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. ²It 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. ³Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. ⁴The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. ⁵It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. ⁶For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity. ⁷Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart. ⁸Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. ⁹Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools. ¹⁰Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. ¹¹Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. ¹²For 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. ¹³Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? ¹⁴In 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. ¹⁵In 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. ¹⁶Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? ¹⁷Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? ¹⁸It 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. ¹⁹Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. ²⁰Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. ²¹Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. ²²Your heart knows that many times you have yourself cursed others. ²³All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. ²⁴That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?

²⁵I 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. ²⁶And 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. ²⁷Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things—²⁸which 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. ²⁹See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

8 Keep the King’s Command

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.

²I say:[1] Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him.[2] ³Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. ⁴For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” ⁵Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. ⁶For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble[3] lies heavy on him. ⁷For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? ⁸No 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. ⁹All this I observed while applying 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

¹⁰Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised[4] in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. ¹¹Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. ¹²Though 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. ¹³But 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

¹⁴There 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. ¹⁵And I commend joy, for man has no good thing 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.

¹⁶When 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, ¹⁷then 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.

[1] Hebrew lacks say [2] Or because of your oath to God [3] Or evil [4] Some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Vulgate; most Hebrew manuscripts forgotten

9 Death Comes to All

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. ²It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,[5] to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. ³This 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. ⁴But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. ⁵For 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. ⁶Their 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

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

⁸Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.

⁹Enjoy 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. ¹⁰Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might,[6] for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Wisdom Better than Folly

¹¹Again 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. ¹²For 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.

¹³I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. ¹⁴There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. ¹⁵But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. ¹⁶But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.

¹⁷The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. ¹⁸Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

[5] Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew lacks and the evil [6] Or finds to do with your might, do it