Ecclesiastes 7-9

Evangelical Heritage Version

What Is Better?

7 A good reputation is better than the best perfume, and the day of one’s death is better than the day of his birth. ² Better to go to a funeral than to a feast,^[a] since death is the final destination for all mankind. The living must take this to heart! ³ Grief is better than laughter, because a sad face does a heart good.

⁴ The hearts of the wise think about the funeral, but the hearts of fools think about the feast. ⁵ It is better to hear a rebuke from a wise man than to listen to a happy song from fools, ⁶ for the fool’s laughter sounds like thorns crackling under a cooking pot. This too is vapor.

⁷ To be sure, oppressing others^[b] turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts his heart.

⁸ It is better to finish something than to begin something. A patient spirit is better than a proud spirit.

⁹ Do not be quick to lose your temper, for outrage is embraced by fools.

¹⁰ Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” Wisdom would not lead you to ask such a question.

¹¹ Wisdom along with an inheritance^[c] is good. It is an advantage for those who see the sun, ¹² because wisdom gives shade as money gives shade, but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom keeps its owner alive.

Keep Your Balance

¹³ Look at the work of God. Indeed, who can straighten what he has bent?

¹⁴ On a good day, enjoy the good, but on a bad day, consider carefully. God has made the one as well as the other, so no man can find out about anything that will come later.

¹⁵ During my days that vanish like vapor, I have seen it all. For instance, a righteous man perishes despite being righteous, while an evil man lives for a long time in spite of his evil.

¹⁶ Do not be overly righteous. Do not trust too much in wisdom. Why ruin yourself? ¹⁷ Do not be overly wicked, either, and do not be a fool. Why die before your time? ¹⁸ It is good that you hang on to one alternative, but do not let go of the other, for one who fears God will avoid both extremes.^[d]

¹⁹ Wisdom makes one wise man stronger than ten rulers who are in the city.

²⁰ There is surely not a righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin.

²¹ Furthermore, do not take to heart all the words people say, so that you do not hear your servant cursing you. ²² Yes, you know in your heart that many times you too have cursed others.

²³ All this I tested with wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was out of reach for me. ²⁴ What has already happened is out of reach, and deeper than deep. Who can find it?

²⁵ I turned my heart to know, to investigate, and to seek wisdom, and to find out how things fit together,^[e] and to know that wickedness is foolishness and stupidity is madness.

²⁶ I kept finding out that a woman whose heart is a trap is more bitter than death. Her heart is a hunter’s net. Her hands are chains. The man whom God recognizes as good will escape from her, but the sinner gets trapped by her.

²⁷ “Look,” says Ecclesiastes, “this is what I found by adding one thing to another in my attempts to find how things fit together— ²⁸ this is something my soul keeps seeking but has not found. One man out of a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found.^[f]

²⁹ “Look, I have found only this: I have found that God made mankind^[g] upright, but they have gone off looking for many schemes.”

8 Who is such a wise man? And who knows how to explain a situation? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine and softens the hard look on his face.

² Obey the king’s command^[h] because of your oath before God.^{[i] 3} Do not quickly leave his presence. Do not stand up for^[j] a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. ⁴ For a king’s word is supreme, and who will say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵ Whoever obeys a command will experience no harm, and a wise heart will know the right time and the right way to act, ⁶ because for each situation there is a right time and a right way to act, although evil may weigh a man down. ⁷ But no one knows what will be. Indeed, who can tell him what will be?^{[k] 8} As no one has power to restrain the wind, there is no power over the day of death. No discharge is granted during war, and wickedness will not deliver those who practice it.

Life Is Not Fair

⁹ All this I saw while I was applying my heart to every work done under the sun, during this time when one man has power over another to harm him.^{[l] 10} While doing this, I have seen wicked people buried. They had come and gone from the holy place, and they were praised^[m] in the city where they had done so! This too is vapor.

¹¹ When the sentence for a crime is not carried out quickly, people’s hearts are emboldened to do evil.

¹² Though a sinner commits a hundred crimes and lives for a long time,^[n] I nevertheless know that it will turn out well for those who fear God, who stand in awe before him. ¹³ But it will not be good for the wicked. Such a man will not lengthen his days like a shadow, since he does not stand in fear before God.

¹⁴ Another example of vapor that appears on the earth is when righteous people get what the wicked deserve for their actions, and wicked people get what the righteous deserve for their actions. I said, “This too is vapor.”

¹⁵ So I sang the praises of pleasure, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy life. Such joy will stay with him during his hard work, throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.

¹⁶ When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to observe the tiresome business done on the earth (even though it keeps a person from sleeping day or night), ¹⁷ I saw everything that God has done, but no man can grasp all the work that is done under the sun. No matter how hard a man works to explore it, he cannot discover it all. Even if the wise man claims to know it, he cannot find it.

9 Nevertheless, as I pondered all this in my heart, I wanted to make all this clear—that the righteous, the wise, and their works are in God’s hand. Will there be love or hate? No one knows anything that is ahead of him. ² Everything turns out the same for everyone. One destination waits for the righteous and the wicked, and the good,^[o] the ceremonially clean and the unclean, the one who brings sacrifices and the one who does not. As it will be for the good, so it will be for the sinner. As it will be for the one who swears an oath, so it will be for the one who is afraid to take an oath.

³ This is an evil that infects everything done under the sun. Yes, they all share one fate. What’s more, people’s hearts are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts as long as they live. After that they go to the dead.

⁴ Now, whoever is still joined to all the living has hope, because a living dog is better than a dead lion. ⁵ At least the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because all memory of them is forgotten. ⁶ Their love, their hate, and their envy have already perished, and they will never again take part in anything done under the sun.

⁷ Go ahead, eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God is already pleased with what you do. ⁸ Wear white clothes all the time. Always put lotion on your head.

⁹ Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your life, that vanishes like vapor, the life which God has given you under the sun, all the days that vanish like vapor,^[p] for that is your portion in life and your reward from all the hard work at which you worked so hard under the sun.

¹⁰ Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength, for there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in the grave, where you are heading.

¹¹ I looked again and saw that under the sun the race is not won by the swift, nor the battle by the strong. Food is not given to the wise, nor is wealth given to those who have good judgment, nor is success given to those who have knowledge, because time and chance come upon all of them.

¹² Certainly, no man knows his time. Like fish caught in a deadly net and like birds caught in a trap, people are trapped at an evil time which falls on them suddenly.

Wisdom Has Some Value

¹³ I also saw this example of wisdom under the sun, and it impressed me.^{[q] 14} There was a small city that had few men in it. A great king came against it, surrounded it, and built great siege works against it. ¹⁵ A poor man who was wise was found in it, and he saved the city by his wisdom, but no one remembered that poor man. ¹⁶ So I said, “Wisdom is better than might, but the wisdom of the poor man gets despised, and his words are not heeded.”

¹⁷ Words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heeded more than the rant of a ruler among fools.

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