传道书 7
Chinese Union Version Modern Punctuation (Simplified)
美名愈于香膏
7 名誉强如美好的膏油，人死的日子胜过人生的日子。 2 往遭丧的家去强如往宴乐的家去，因为死是众人的结局，活人也必将这事放在心上。 3 忧愁强如喜笑，因为面带愁容终必使心喜乐。 4 智慧人的心在遭丧之家，愚昧人的心在快乐之家。
受智者责胜于听愚者歌
5 听智慧人的责备，强如听愚昧人的歌唱。 6 愚昧人的笑声好像锅下烧荆棘的爆声。这也是虚空。 7 勒索使智慧人变为愚妄，贿赂能败坏人的慧心。
8 事情的终局强如事情的起头，存心忍耐的胜过居心骄傲的。 9 你不要心里急躁恼怒，因为恼怒存在愚昧人的怀中。 10 不要说：“先前的日子强过如今的日子是什么缘故呢？”你这样问，不是出于智慧。
智慧美于产业
11 智慧和产业并好，而且见天日的人得智慧更为有益。 12 因为智慧护庇人好像银钱护庇人一样，唯独智慧能保全智慧人的生命，这就是知识的益处。 13 你要察看神的作为，因神使为曲的，谁能变为直呢？ 14 遇亨通的日子你当喜乐，遭患难的日子你当思想，因为神使这两样并列，为的是叫人查不出身后有什么事。
15 有义人行义反致灭亡，有恶人行恶倒享长寿，这都是我在虚度之日中所见过的。 16 不要行义过分，也不要过于自逞智慧，何必自取败亡呢？ 17 不要行恶过分，也不要为人愚昧，何必不到期而死呢？ 18 你持守这个为美，那个也不要松手，因为敬畏神的人必从这两样出来。
义人难免无罪
19 智慧使有智慧的人比城中十个官长更有能力。 20 时常行善而不犯罪的义人，世上实在没有。 21 人所说的一切话，你不要放在心上，恐怕听见你的仆人咒诅你。 22 因为你心里知道，自己也曾屡次咒诅别人。
23 我曾用智慧试验这一切事，我说要得智慧，智慧却离我远。 24 万事之理离我甚远，而且最深，谁能测透呢？ 25 我转念，一心要知道，要考察，要寻求智慧和万事的理由，又要知道邪恶为愚昧，愚昧为狂妄。 26 我得知有等妇人比死还苦，她的心是网罗，手是锁链，凡蒙神喜悦的人必能躲避她，有罪的人却被她缠住了。 27 传道者说：看哪，一千男子中，我找到一个正直人，但众女子中没有找到一个。我将这事一一比较，要寻求其理，我心仍要寻找，却未曾找到。 29 我所找到的只有一件，就是神造人原是正直，但他们寻出许多巧计。
Ecclesiastes 7
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
A. No One Can Find Out the Best Way of Acting
Chapter 7
Critique of Sages on the Day of Adversity
1 A good name is better than good ointment,[a]
and the day of death than the day of birth.(A)
2 It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to the house of feasting,
For that is the end of every mortal,
and the living should take it to heart.(B)
3 Sorrow is better than laughter;
when the face is sad, the heart grows wise.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of merriment.
5 It is better to listen to the rebuke of the wise
than to listen to the song of fools;
6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot,
so is the fool’s laughter.
This also is vanity.
7 Extortion can make a fool out of the wise,
and a bribe corrupts the heart.
8 Better is the end of a thing than its beginning;
better is a patient spirit than a lofty one.
9 Do not let anger upset your spirit,
for anger lodges in the bosom of a fool.
10 Do not say: How is it that former times were better than these? For it is not out of wisdom that you ask about this.
11 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance
and profitable to those who see the sun.
12 [b]For the protection of wisdom is as the protection of money; and knowledge is profitable because wisdom gives life to those who possess it.
13 Consider the work of God. Who can make straight what God has made crooked?(C) 14 On a good day enjoy good things, and on an evil day consider: Both the one and the other God has made, so that no one may find the least fault with him.
Critique of Sages on Justice and Wickedness. 15 [c]I have seen all manner of things in my vain days: the just perishing in their justice, and the wicked living long in their wickedness. 16 “Be not just to excess, and be not overwise. Why work your own ruin? 17 Be not wicked to excess, and be not foolish. Why should you die before your time?” 18 It is good to hold to this rule, and not to let that one go; but the one who fears God will succeed with both.
19 Wisdom is a better defense for the wise than ten princes in the city, 20 (D)yet there is no one on earth so just as to do good and never sin. 21 Do not give your heart to every word that is spoken; you may hear your servant cursing you, 22 for your heart knows that you have many times cursed others.
23 All these things I probed in wisdom. I said, “I will acquire wisdom”; but it was far beyond me. 24 What exists is far-reaching; it is deep, very deep:[d] Who can find it out? 25 [e](E)I turned my heart toward knowledge; I sought and pursued wisdom and its design, and I recognized that wickedness is foolishness and folly is madness.
Critique of Advice on Women. 26 (F)More bitter than death I find the woman[f] who is a hunter’s trap, whose heart is a snare, whose hands are prison bonds. The one who pleases God will be delivered from her, but the one who displeases will be entrapped by her. 27 See, this have I found, says Qoheleth, adding one to one to find the sum. 28 What my soul still seeks and has yet to find is this: “One man out of a thousand have I found, but a woman among them all I have not found.” 29 But this alone I have found: God made humankind honest, but they have pursued many designs.
Footnotes
- 7:1 Ointment: a good name can be affirmed only with death, when one is normally anointed. The author dialogues in this section (vv. 1–14) with traditional wisdom, alternately affirming or countering its assertions. The real value of traditional wisdom lies in its ability to provoke one to thought and reflection, and not to absolve one from such activity.
- 7:12 St. Jerome’s translation of v. 12b gives an edge to wisdom over money: “But learning and wisdom excel in this, that they bestow life on the one who possesses them.”
- 7:15–24 The author continues both to affirm and to counter traditional wisdom. He affirms a certain validity to wisdom, but challenges complacency and mindless optimism. His sense of life’s uncertainty and insecurity finds expression, for example, in the irony evident when v. 16 is read in the light of vv. 20–24: How can one be “excessively” just or wise, when justice and wisdom may be out of reach to begin with? The only sure thing is to “fear God” (v. 18).
- 7:24 Far-reaching…deep: the spatial metaphor here emphasizes wisdom’s inaccessibility, a frequent theme in wisdom literature; cf. Jb 28; Prv 30:1–4; Sir 24:28–29; Bar 3:14–23.
- 7:25–29 The emphasis is on the devious designs of human beings in general, reflecting the viewpoint of Genesis.
- 7:26 More bitter than death…the woman: warnings against the scheming, adulterous woman are common in ancient wisdom (e.g., Prv 2:16–19, etc.).
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