Ecclesiastes 9
Contemporary English Version
One Day at a Time
9 I thought about these things. Then I understood that God has power over everyone, even those who are wise and live right. Anything can happen to any one of us, and so we never know if life will be good or bad.[a] 2 But exactly[b] the same thing will finally happen to all of us, whether we live right and respect God or sin and don't respect God. Yes, the same thing will happen if we offer sacrifices to God or if we don't, if we keep our promises or are afraid to make them.
3 It's terribly unfair for the same thing to happen to each of us. We are mean and foolish while we live, and then we die. 4 As long as we are alive, we still have hope, just as a live dog is better off than a dead lion. 5 We know we will die, but the dead don't know a thing. Nothing good will happen to them—they are gone and forgotten. 6 Their loves, their hates, and their jealous feelings have all disappeared with them. They will never again take part in anything that happens on this earth.
7 So be happy and enjoy eating and drinking! God decided long ago that this is what you should do. 8 Dress up, comb your hair, and look your best. 9 Life is short, and you love your wife, so enjoy being with her. This is what you are supposed to do as you struggle through life on this earth. 10 Work hard at whatever you do. You will soon go to the world of the dead, where no one works or thinks or reasons or even knows anything.
11 Here is something else I have learned:
The fastest runners
and the greatest heroes
don't always win races
and battles.
Wisdom, intelligence, and skill
don't always make you healthy,
rich, or popular.
We each have our own share
of misfortune.
12 None of us know when we might fall victim to a sudden disaster and find ourselves like fish in a net or birds in a trap.
Better To Be Wise than Foolish
13 Once I saw what people really think of wisdom, and it made an impression on me. 14 It happened when a powerful ruler surrounded and attacked a small city where only a few people lived. The enemy army was getting ready to break through the city walls. 15 But the city was saved by the wisdom of a poor person who was soon forgotten. 16 So I decided that wisdom is better than strength. Yet if you are poor, no one pays any attention to you, no matter how smart you are.
17 Words of wisdom spoken softly
make much more sense
than the shouts of a ruler
to a crowd of fools.
18 Wisdom is more powerful
than weapons,
yet one mistake can destroy
all the good you have done.
Ecclesiastes 9
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
B. No One Knows the Future
Chapter 9
1 All this I have kept in my heart and all this I examined: The just, the wise, and their deeds are in the hand of God. Love from hatred[a] mortals cannot tell; both are before them. 2 (A)Everything is the same for everybody: the same lot for the just and the wicked, for the good, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who offers sacrifice and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who takes an oath, so it is for the one who fears an oath. 3 Among all the things that are done under the sun, this is the worst, that there is one lot for all. Hence the hearts of human beings are filled with evil, and madness is in their hearts during life; and afterward—to the dead!
4 For whoever is chosen among all the living has hope: “A live dog[b] is better off than a dead lion.” 5 (B)For the living know that they are to die, but the dead no longer know anything. There is no further recompense for them, because all memory of them is lost. 6 For them, love and hatred and rivalry have long since perished. Never again will they have part in anything that is done under the sun.
7 (C)Go, eat your bread[c] with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, because it is now that God favors your works. 8 At all times let your garments be white, and spare not the perfume for your head. 9 Enjoy life with the wife you love, all the days of the vain life granted you under the sun. This is your lot in life, for the toil of your labors under the sun. 10 Anything you can turn your hand to, do with what power you have; for there will be no work, no planning, no knowledge, no wisdom in Sheol where you are going.
The Time of Misfortune Is Not Known. 11 Again I saw under the sun that the race is not won by the swift, nor the battle by the valiant, nor a livelihood by the wise, nor riches by the shrewd, nor favor by the experts; for a time of misfortune comes to all alike. 12 Human beings no more know their own time than fish taken in the fatal net or birds trapped in the snare; like these, mortals are caught when an evil time suddenly falls upon them.
The Uncertain Future and the Sages. 13 On the other hand I saw this wise deed under the sun, which I thought magnificent. 14 Against a small city with few inhabitants advanced a mighty king, who surrounded it and threw up great siegeworks about it. 15 But in the city lived a man who, though poor, was wise, and he delivered it through his wisdom. Yet no one remembered this poor man. 16 (D)Though I had said, “Wisdom is better than force,” yet the wisdom of the poor man is despised and his words go unheeded.
17 The quiet words of the wise are better heeded
than the shout of a ruler of fools.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
but one bungler destroys much good.
Footnotes
- 9:1–3 Love from hatred…everything is the same: God seems to bestow divine favor or disfavor (love or hatred) indiscriminately on the just and wicked alike. More ominously, the arbitrariness and inevitability of death and adversity confront every human being, whether good or bad.
- 9:4–6 A live dog…no further recompense: human reason and experience persuaded Qoheleth that death with its finality and annihilating power cruelly negates the supreme value—life, and with it, all possibilities (cf. v. 10). Faith in eternal life has its foundation only in hope and trust in God’s promise and in God’s love.
- 9:7–10 Go, eat your bread…enjoy life: the author confesses his inability to imprison God in a fixed and predictable way of acting. Thus he ponders a practical and pragmatic solution: Seize whatever opportunity one has to find joy, if God grants it.
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