Beginning

9 All this I took to my lev, explaining it all, that the tzaddikim, and the chachamim, and their works, are in the yad HaElohim; adam does not have da’as of whether it will be ahavah or sinah; all lies before him.

² All things come alike to all; there is one mikreh (fortune) to the tzaddik, and to the rasha; to the tov and to the tahor, and to the tameh; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not; as is the tov, so is the choteh; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth a shevuah (an oath).

³ This is a rah among all things that are done under the shemesh, that there is one mikreh (fortune) unto all; yea, also the lev of the bnei haAdam is full of rah, and holelot (madness) is in their lev while they live, and after that they go to the mesim.

⁴ For to him that is joined to all the living there is bitachon; for a kelev chai (living dog) is better than an aryeh hamet (dead lion).

⁵ For the living have da’as that they shall die; but the mesim do not have da’as of anything, neither have they any more a sachar, for the memory of them is forgotten.

⁶ Also their ahavah, and their sinah, and their kina, is now perished; neither have they any more a chelek l’olam in any thing that is done under the shemesh.

⁷ Go thy way, eat thy lechem with simchah, and drink thy yayin with a lev tov; for HaElohim now accepteth thy ma’asim.

⁸ Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no shemen (ointment).

⁹ Live joyfully with the isha whom thou lovest all the days of thy chayyei hevel, which he hath given thee under the shemesh, all the days of thy hevel; for that is thy chelek in this life, and in thy amal (toil) which thou laborest under the shemesh.

¹⁰ Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy koach; for there is no ma’aseh, nor cheshbon, nor da’as, nor chochmah in Sheol, whither thou goest.

¹¹ I returned, and saw under the shemesh, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the gibborim, neither yet lechem to the chachamim, nor yet osher to the intelligent, nor yet chen (favor) to the experts; but et (time) and pega (chance) happeneth to them all.

¹² For haAdam also hath no da’as of his et (time, hour, but see Yn 13:1; 8:20; 7:30; 2:4 regarding the Moshiach’s knowledge of his hour); as the dagim that are caught in a metzodah rah (evil net), and as the birds that are trapped in the pach (snare), so are the Bnei HaAdam snared in an et ra’ah (evil time), when it falleth suddenly upon them.

¹³ This chochmah have I seen also under the shemesh, and it seemed gedolah (great) unto me:

¹⁴ There was an ir ketanah (little city), and few men within it; and there came a melech gadol against it, and besieged it, and built metzorim gedolim (huge siegeworks) against it.

¹⁵ Now there was found in it a poor chacham, and he by his chochmah delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.

¹⁶ Then said I, Chochmah is better than gevurah (strength); nevertheless the poor man’s chochmah is despised, and his devarim are not heard.

¹⁷ Divrei chachamim in quiet are more to be heeded than the shouting of the moshel (one ruling) among kesilim.

¹⁸ Chochmah is better than weapons of war, but one choteh destroyeth much good.

10 Dead flies cause the perfumer’s shemen to send forth a foul odor; so doth a little sichlut outweigh chochmah and kavod.

² A chacham’s lev is at his yamin (right hand); but a kesil’s lev is at his semol (left hand).

³ Yea also, when he that is a kesil even walketh along the derech, his sense faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a kesil.

⁴ If the ruach of the moshel rise up against thee, leave not thy mekom; for calmness pacifieth chata’im gedolim.

⁵ There is a ra’ah which I have seen under the shemesh, the sort of error which proceedeth from a shalit (ruler);

⁶ Sekhel (folly) is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place.

⁷ I have seen avadim (servants) upon susim, and sarim (princes) walking as avadim upon ha’aretz.

⁸ He that diggeth a gumatz (pit) shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh through a wall, a nachash shall bite him.

⁹ Whoso pulleth out avanim (stones) may be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood may be endangered thereby.

¹⁰ If the barzel (iron [of the axe]) be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must more strength be marshalled; but chochmah brings success.

¹¹ If the nachash will bite before it is charmed, there is no use in a charmer.

¹² The words of a chacham’s mouth are chen (gracious); but the lips of a kesil will swallow up himself.

¹³ The beginning of the words of his mouth is sichlut; and the end of his talk is holelot ra’ah.

¹⁴ A kesil also is full of devarim; haAdam has no da’as of what shall be, and what shall be after him, who can tell him?

¹⁵ The amal of the kesilim wearieth him, because he has no da’as of how to go to town.

¹⁶ Woe to thee, O eretz, when thy melech is a na’ar, and thy sarim (princes) feast in the boker!

¹⁷ Blessed art thou, O eretz, when thy melech is a nobleman, and thy sarim (princes) eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!

¹⁸ By much atzlut (slothfulness) the rafters falleth; and through idleness of the hands the bais leaketh.

¹⁹ Lechem is made for laughter, and yayin maketh merry; but kesef answereth everything.

²⁰ Curse not the Melech, no not in thy thought; and curse not the oisher in thy bedchamber; for an Oph haShomayim may carry the voice, and that which hath wings may report what you say.

11 Cast thy lechem upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many yamim.

² Give chelek (portions) to shivah, and also to shmonah; for thou knowest not what ra’ah shall be upon ha’aretz.

³ If the clouds be full of geshem, they empty themselves upon ha’aretz; and if the etz fall toward the darom (south), or toward the tzafon (north), in the makom (place) where the etz falleth, there it lieth.

⁴ He that observeth the ruach (wind) shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.

⁵ As thou knowest not what is the derech haruach [see Yn 3:3-8], nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child; even so thou knowest not the ma’asei HaElohim who maketh all.

⁶ In the boker sow thy zera, and in the erev do not let thine hand be idle; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike tovim.

⁷ Truly the ohr is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eynayim to behold the shemesh;

⁸ But if haAdam live many shanim, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the yamim of choshech; for they shall be many. All that cometh is hevel.

⁹ Rejoice, O bochur, in thy yaldut (youth); and let thy lev cheer thee in the yamim of thy bechurim (youth), and walk in the ways of thine lev, and in the sight of thine eynayim; but have da’as of this; that for all these things HaElohim will bring thee into mishpat.

¹⁰ Therefore banish ka’as (sorrow) from thy lev, and put away ra’ah from thy basar; for yaldut and shacharut (prime of life) are hevel.

12 Remember now thy Bo’re (Creator) in the yamim of thy bechurot, while the yamei hara’ah come not, nor the shanim draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no chefetz (pleasure) in them;

² While the shemesh, or the ohr, or the yarei’ach, or the kokhavim, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain;

³ In the yom when the shomrei habayit shall tremble, and the strong men shall stoop, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows grow dim,

⁴ And the delatayim (doors) shall be shut in the street, when the sound of the grinding fades, and he shall arise at the sound of a tzipor (bird), and all their banot hashir (daughters of song) are brought low;

⁵ Also when they shall be afraid of height, and fears shall be in the derech, and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper drags himself along, and desire shall fail; because haAdam goeth to his bais olam (eternal home), and the mourners go about the streets;

⁶ Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the bor (cistern).

⁷ Then shall the aphar return to ha’aretz as it was; and the ruach shall return unto HaElohim who gave it.

⁸ Hevel havalim, saith Kohelet; all is hevel.

⁹ And moreover, because Kohelet was chacham, he taught the people da’as; yea, he applied, and searched out, and set in order many meshalim (proverbs).

¹⁰ Kohelet searched to find out divrei chefetz; and that which was written was yosher, even divrei emes.

¹¹ Divrei chachamim are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings that are given by Ro’eh Echad (One Shepherd).

¹² And further, by these, beni, be admonished; of making many sefarim there is no ketz; and much study is a weariness of the basar.

¹³ Let us hear the sof (conclusion) of the whole matter; Fear HaElohim, and of His commandments be shomer mitzvot; for this is the whole duty of haAdam.

¹⁴ For HaElohim shall bring kol ma’aseh (every work) into mishpat (judgment), with every ne’lam (secret thing, concealed thing), whether it be tov (good), or whether it be rah (evil).