Ecclesiastes 9:8-15
English Standard Version
8 (A)Let your garments be always white. Let not (B)oil be lacking on your head.
9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your (C)vain[a] life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your (D)portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, (E)do it with your might,[b] (F)for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
Wisdom Better Than Folly
11 (G)Again I saw that under the sun (H)the race is not to the swift, nor (I)the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and (J)chance (K)happen to them all. 12 For man (L)does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and (M)like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are (N)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 There 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 (O)a poor, wise man, and he by his (P)wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Ecclesiastes 9:9 The Hebrew term hebel can refer to a “vapor” or “mere breath” (see note on 1:2)
- Ecclesiastes 9:10 Or finds to do with your might, do it
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.