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Ecclesiastes 7

Wisdom

 ² It is better to go to a house of mourning
       than to go to a house of feasting,
       for death is the destiny of every man;
       the living should take this to heart.

 ³ Sorrow is better than laughter,
       because a sad face is good for the heart.

 ⁴ The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
       but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

 ⁵ It is better to heed a wise man's rebuke
       than to listen to the song of fools.

 ⁶ Like the crackling of thorns under the pot,
       so is the laughter of fools.
       This too is meaningless.

 ⁷ Extortion turns a wise man into a fool,
       and a bribe corrupts the heart.

 ⁸ The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
       and patience is better than pride.

 ⁹ Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,
       for anger resides in the lap of fools.

 ¹⁰ Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?"
       For it is not wise to ask such questions.

 ¹¹ Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing
       and benefits those who see the sun.

 ¹² Wisdom is a shelter
       as money is a shelter,
       but the advantage of knowledge is this:
       that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor.

 ¹³ Consider what God has done:
       Who can straighten
       what he has made crooked?

 ¹⁴ When times are good, be happy;
       but when times are bad, consider:
       God has made the one
       as well as the other.
       Therefore, a man cannot discover
       anything about his future.

 ¹⁵ In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:
       a righteous man perishing in his righteousness,
       and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.

 ¹⁶ Do not be overrighteous,
       neither be overwise—
       why destroy yourself?

 ¹⁷ Do not be overwicked,
       and do not be a fool—
       why die before your time?

 ¹⁸ It is good to grasp the one
       and not let go of the other.
       The man who fears God will avoid all extremes . ^[a]

 ¹⁹ Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful
       than ten rulers in a city.

 ²⁰ There is not a righteous man on earth
       who does what is right and never sins.

 ²¹ Do not pay attention to every word people say,
       or you may hear your servant cursing you-

 ²² for you know in your heart
       that many times you yourself have cursed others.

 ²³ All this I tested by wisdom and I said,
       "I am determined to be wise"—
       but this was beyond me.

 ²⁴ Whatever wisdom may be,
       it is far off and most profound—
       who can discover it?

 ²⁵ So I turned my mind to understand,
       to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things
       and to understand the stupidity of wickedness
       and the madness of folly.

 ²⁶ I find more bitter than death
       the woman who is a snare,
       whose heart is a trap
       and whose hands are chains.
       The man who pleases God will escape her,
       but the sinner she will ensnare.

 ²⁷ "Look," says the Teacher, ^[b] "this is what I have discovered:
       "Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things-

 ²⁸ while I was still searching
       but not finding—
       I found one upright man among a thousand,
       but not one upright woman among them all.

 ²⁹ This only have I found:
       God made mankind upright,
       but men have gone in search of many schemes."

Ecclesiastes 8

 ¹ Who is like the wise man?
       Who knows the explanation of things?
       Wisdom brightens a man's face
       and changes its hard appearance.

Obey the King

 ⁵ Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm,
       and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.

 ⁶ For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter,
       though a man's misery weighs heavily upon him.

 ⁷ Since no man knows the future,
       who can tell him what is to come?

 ⁸ No man has power over the wind to contain it ^[c] ;
       so no one has power over the day of his death.
       As no one is discharged in time of war,
       so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

 ⁹ All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own ^[d] hurt. ¹⁰ Then too, I saw the wicked buried—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise ^[e] in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.

 ¹¹ When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong. ¹² Although a wicked man commits a hundred crimes and still lives a long time, I know that it will go better with God-fearing men, who are reverent before God. ¹³ Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

 ¹⁴ There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. ¹⁵ So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.

 ¹⁶ When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe man's labor on earth—his eyes not seeing sleep day or night- ¹⁷ then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it.

Ecclesiastes 9

A Common Destiny for All

 ³ This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. ⁴ Anyone who is among the living has hope ^[g] —even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

 ⁵ For the living know that they will die,
       but the dead know nothing;
       they have no further reward,
       and even the memory of them is forgotten.

 ⁶ Their love, their hate
       and their jealousy have long since vanished;
       never again will they have a part
       in anything that happens under the sun.

 ⁷ Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. ⁸ Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. ⁹ Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun— all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. ¹⁰ Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, ^[h] where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

 ¹¹ I have seen something else under the sun:
       The race is not to the swift
       or the battle to the strong,
       nor does food come to the wise
       or wealth to the brilliant
       or favor to the learned;
       but time and chance happen to them all.

 ¹² Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come:
       As fish are caught in a cruel net,
       or birds are taken in a snare,
       so men are trapped by evil times
       that fall unexpectedly upon them.

Wisdom Better Than Folly

 ¹⁷ The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded
       than the shouts of a ruler of fools.

 ¹⁸ Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
       but one sinner destroys much good.

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2 Corinthians 13

Final Warnings

 ⁵Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? ⁶And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. ⁷Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong. Not that people will see that we have stood the test but that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. ⁸For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. ⁹We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is for your perfection. ¹⁰This is why I write these things when I am absent, that when I come I may not have to be harsh in my use of authority—the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down.

Final Greetings

 ¹²Greet one another with a holy kiss. ¹³All the saints send their greetings.

 ¹⁴May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.