Wise Sayings

¹⁴ In the day of prosperity be joyful,^(O) but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other,^(P) so that no one can discover anything that will come after him.

Avoiding Extremes

¹⁵ In my futile life^[a] I have seen everything:^(Q) someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness,^(R) and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil.^{(S) 16} Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise.^(T) Why should you destroy yourself? ¹⁷ Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time?^{(U) 18} It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.

²¹ Don’t pay attention^[b] to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you,^{(X) 22} for in your heart you know that many times you yourself have cursed others.

What the Teacher Found

²³ I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me. ²⁴ What exists is beyond reach and very deep.^(Y) Who can discover it? ²⁵ I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and examine wisdom^(Z) and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness. ²⁶ And I find more bitter than death^(AA) the woman who is a trap:^(AB) her heart a net and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her. ²⁷ “Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation, ²⁸ which my soul continually searches for but does not find: I found one person in a thousand, but none of those was a woman.^{(AC) 29} Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright,^(AD) but they pursued many schemes.”

Wisdom, Authorities, and Inequities

8 Who is like the wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A person’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.^(AE)

² Keep^[c] the king’s command because of your oath made before God.^{(AF) 3} Do not be in a hurry; leave his presence,^(AG) and don’t persist in a bad cause, since he will do whatever he wants. ⁴ For the king’s word is authoritative, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?” ^{(AH) 5} The one who keeps a command will not experience anything harmful,^(AI) and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure. ⁶ For every activity there is a right time and procedure,^(AJ) even though a person’s troubles are heavy on him. ⁷ Yet no one knows what will happen^(AK) because who can tell him what will happen? ⁸ No one has authority over the wind^[d] to restrain it,^(AL) and there is no authority over the day of death;^(AM) no one is discharged during battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape. ⁹ All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one person has authority over another to his harm.

¹⁰ In such circumstances, I saw the wicked buried. They came and went from the holy place,^(AN) and they were praised^[e] in the city where they did those things. This too is futile. ¹¹ Because the sentence against an evil act is not carried out quickly,^(AO) the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit evil. ¹² Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life,^(AP) I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people,^(AQ) for they are reverent before him. ¹³ However, it will not go well with the wicked,^(AR) and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow,^(AS) for they are not reverent before God.

¹⁴ There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve,^(AT) and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve.^(AU) I say that this too is futile. ¹⁵ So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself,^(AV) for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

¹⁶ When I applied my mind to know wisdom^(AW) and to observe the activity that is done on the earth (even though one’s eyes do not close in sleep day or night), ¹⁷ I observed all the work of God and concluded that a person is unable to discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though a person labors hard to explore it, he cannot find it;^(AX) even if a wise person claims to know it, he is unable to discover it.

Enjoy Life Despite Death

9 Indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all: The righteous, the wise, and their works are in God’s hands.^(AY) People don’t know whether to expect love or hate. Everything lies ahead of them. ² Everything is the same for everyone:^(AZ) There is one fate for the righteous and the wicked,^(BA) for the good and the bad,^[f] for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As it is for the good, so also it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who takes an oath, so also for the one who fears an oath. ³ This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: there is one fate for everyone. In addition, the hearts of people are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live;^(BB) after that they go to the dead. ⁴ But there is hope for whoever is joined^[g] with all the living, since a live dog is better than a dead lion. ⁵ For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything. There is no longer a reward for them because the memory of them is forgotten.^{(BC) 6} Their love, their hate, and their envy have already disappeared, and there is no longer a portion for them in all that is done under the sun.

⁷ Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works.^{(BD) 8} Let your clothes be white all the time, and never let oil be lacking on your head.^{(BE) 9} Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting^[h] life,^(BF) which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle^(BG) under the sun. ¹⁰ Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength,^(BH) because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom^(BI) in Sheol where you are going.

The Limitations of Wisdom

¹¹ Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift,^(BJ) or the battle to the strong,^(BK) or bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful; rather, time and chance happen to all of them. ¹² For certainly no one knows his time:^(BL) like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap,^(BM) so people are trapped in an evil time^(BN) as it suddenly falls on them.^(BO)

¹³ I have observed that this also is wisdom under the sun, and it is significant to me: ¹⁴ There was a small city with few men in it. A great king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege works against it. ¹⁵ Now a poor wise man was found in the city,^(BP) and he delivered the city by his wisdom.^(BQ) Yet no one remembered that poor man. ¹⁶ And I said, “Wisdom is better than strength,^(BR) but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded.”

Psalm 46

God Our Refuge

For the choir director. A song of the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth.^(A)

Difficult Times Ahead

3 But know this: Hard times will come in the last days.^{(A) 2} For people will be lovers of self,^(B) lovers of money,^(C) boastful, proud,^(D) demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,^{(E) 3} unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers,^(F) without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good,^{(G) 4} traitors,^(H) reckless,^(I) conceited,^(J) lovers of pleasure^(K) rather than lovers of God, ⁵ holding to the form of godliness but denying its power.^(L) Avoid these people.^(M)

⁶ For among them are those who worm their way into households and deceive gullible women overwhelmed by sins and led astray by a variety of passions,^{(N) 7} always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.^{(O) 8} Just as Jannes and Jambres^(P) resisted Moses,^(Q) so these also resist the truth. They are men who are corrupt in mind^(R) and worthless^(S) in regard to the faith. ⁹ But they will not make further progress, for their foolishness will be clear to all, as was the foolishness of Jannes and Jambres.

Struggles in the Christian Life

¹⁰ But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose,^(T) faith, patience, love,^(U) and endurance, ¹¹ along with the persecutions and sufferings^(V) that came to me in Antioch,^(W) Iconium,^(X) and Lystra.^(Y) What persecutions I endured—and yet the Lord rescued me from them all. ¹² In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.^{(Z) 13} Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving^(AA) and being deceived. ¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you,^{(AB) 15} and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures,^(AC) which are able to give you wisdom for salvation^(AD) through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is inspired by God^[a](AE) and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.^(AF)