Ecclesiastes 9:7-13

English Standard Version

Enjoy Life with the One You Love

⁷Go, ^(A)eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

⁸^(B)Let your garments be always white. Let not ^(C)oil be lacking on your head.

⁹Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your ^(D)vain^[a] life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your ^(E)portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. ¹⁰Whatever your hand finds to do, ^(F)do it with your might,^[b] ^(G)for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Wisdom Better Than Folly

¹¹^(H)Again I saw that under the sun ^(I)the race is not to the swift, nor ^(J)the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and ^(K)chance ^(L)happen to them all. ¹²For man ^(M)does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and ^(N)like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are ^(O)snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.

¹³I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me.

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Footnotes

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