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.