Beginning
5 (2) Don’t speak impulsively — don’t be in a hurry
to give voice to your words before God.
For God is in heaven, and you are on earth;
so let your words be few.
2 (3) For nightmares come from worrying too much;
and a fool, when he speaks, chatters too much.
3 (4) If you make a vow to God, don’t delay in discharging it. For God takes no pleasure in fools, so discharge your vow! 4 (5) Better not to make a vow than to make a vow and not discharge it. 5 (6) Don’t let your words make you guilty, and don’t tell the temple official that you made the vow by mistake. Why give God reason to be angry at what you say and destroy what you have accomplished? 6 (7) For [this is what happens when there are too] many dreams, aimless activities and words. Instead, just fear God!
7 (8) If you see the poor oppressed, rights violated and justice perverted in the province, don’t be surprised; for a high official has one higher watching him, and there are others above them. 8 (9) But the greatest advantage to the country is when the king makes himself a servant to the land.
9 (10) The lover of money never has enough money;
the lover of luxury never has enough income.
This too is pointless.
10 (11) When the quantity of goods increases,
so does the number of parasites consuming them;
so the only advantage to the owner is
that he gets to watch them do it.
11 (12) The sleep of a working man is sweet,
whether he eats little or much;
but the overfullness of the rich
won’t let them sleep at all.
12 (13) Here is a gross evil which I have seen under the sun: the owner of wealth hoards it to his own hurt.
13 (14) Due to some misfortune,
the wealth turns to loss;
and then if he has fathered a son,
he has nothing to leave him.
14 (15) Just as he came from his mother’s womb,
so he will go back naked as he came,
and for his efforts he will take nothing
that he can carry away in his hand.
15 (16) This too is a gross evil, that in every respect as he came, so will he go; thus what profit does he have after toiling to earn the wind? 16 (17) All his life he eats in darkness, in frustration, in sickness and in anger.
17 (18) This is what I have seen to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, drink and enjoy the good that results from all his work that he engages in under the sun for all the days of his life that God has given him, for this is his allotted portion. 18 (19) Also, everyone to whom God has given riches and wealth, along with the power to enjoy it, so that he takes his allotted portion and finds pleasure in his work — this is a gift of God; 19 (20) for he will not brood over the fact that his life is short, since God keeps him occupied with what will bring him joy.
6 I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on people: 2 the case in which God gives someone riches, wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing that he wants; but God does not give him the power to enjoy them, and some stranger gets to enjoy them — this is meaningless, evil, sick.
3 Suppose a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that he has a long life, but he fails to enjoy himself; then, even if he were to [live indefinitely and therefore] never be buried, I say that it would be better to be born dead. 4 For the arrival of a stillborn baby is a futile thing, and its departure is in darkness; its name is [forgotten,] covered in darkness; 5 and although it has never seen or known the sun, it is more content than he is, 6 without enjoying himself, even if he were to live a thousand years twice over. Doesn’t everyone go to the same place?
7 The purpose of all toil is to fill the mouth,
yet the appetite is never satisfied.
8 What advantage has the wise over the fool,
or the person with experience, if he is poor?
9 Better what the eyes can see
than meandering desire.
Yet this too is pointless
and feeding on wind.
10 Whatever he is, he was named long ago,
and it is known that he is merely human;
moreover, he cannot defeat
what is mightier than he [death].
11 There are many things that only add to futility,
so how do humans benefit from them?
12 For who knows what is good for someone during life,
during the days of his pointless life spent like a shadow?
Who can tell what will happen under the sun
after a person is gone?
7 A good name is better than perfumed oil,
and the day of death better than the day of birth.
2 Better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for all are destined to be mourned;
the living should lay this to heart.
3 Grief is better than laughter,
for sadness can improve a person.
4 The thoughts of the wise are in the house of mourning,
but the thoughts of fools are in the house of pleasure.
5 It is better to hear the rebukes of the wise
than to listen to the songs of fools.
6 For the laughter of fools is like the crackling of thorns
burning under a pot; this too is pointless.
7 But oppression can make a wise man stupid;
also a gift can destroy understanding.
8 The end of something is better than its beginning,
so the patient are better than the proud.
9 Don’t be quick to get angry,
for [only] fools nurse anger.
10 Don’t ask why the old days were better than now,
because that is a foolish question.
11 Wisdom is good, along with possessions,
an advantage to all who see the sun.
12 For wisdom is a shelter,
and money is a shelter,
but the advantage of knowledge is
that wisdom keeps the one who has it alive.
13 Consider the work of God:
who can make straight what he has made crooked?
14 When things are going well, enjoy yourself;
but when things are going badly, consider
that God made the one alongside the other,
so that people would learn nothing of their futures.
15 In my pointless life, I’ve seen everything —
from the righteous person perishing in his uprightness
to the wicked one who lives a long life
and keeps on doing wrong.
16 So don’t be overly righteous or overly wise;
why should you disappoint yourself?
17 But don’t be overly wicked, and don’t be foolish;
why should you die before your time?
18 Don’t grasp just one of these rules;
take hold of the other as well;
for he who is in fear of God
will live by both of them.
19 To a wise man wisdom is better protection
than ten rulers in a city.
20 For there isn’t a righteous person on earth
who does [only] good and never sins.
21 Also, don’t take seriously every word spoken,
such as when you hear your servant speaking badly of you;
22 because often, as you yourself know,
you have spoken badly of others.
23 All this I have put to the test of wisdom;
I said, “I will acquire wisdom”;
but wisdom remained far away from me.
24 That which exists is far away
and deep, so deep, that it can’t be discovered.
25 So I turned myself and my thoughts to know, search out and seek wisdom and the reasons behind things, also to know how foolish it is to be wicked and how stupid to act like a fool.
26 I found more bitter than death
the woman who is a trap,
whose heart is a snare
and whose hands are like prison chains.
The man who pleases God will escape from her,
but the sinner will be caught by her.
27 I have found this — says Kohelet —
adding one thing to another to reach a conclusion,
28 I searched a long time without finding it:
one man in a thousand I have found,
but a woman among all those I have not found.
29 This is the only thing I have found,
that God made human beings upright,
but they have devised many schemes.
8 Who can be compared with a wise person?
Who else knows what a thing means?
Wisdom lights up the face
and softens a grim appearance.
2 Keep the king’s command
because of the oath before God.
3 Don’t be quick to leave his presence,
and don’t persist in doing what is wrong,
for he does whatever he pleases.
4 After all, his word is final;
who can challenge him, “Why are you doing that?”
5 Whoever obeys his command
will never come to harm,
and the wise person will know
the right time and judgment.
6 For to everything there is
a right time and a judgment,
since people are greatly troubled
7 by uncertainty over the future;
even when the event takes place,
who will tell them about it?
8 Just as no one has the power
to keep the wind from blowing,
so no one has power
over the day of death.
If one is drafted to fight a war,
one can’t send a substitute;
likewise the wicked won’t escape death
by their wickedness.
9 All this I have seen, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun when one person tyrannizes another. 10 Thus I saw the wicked buried; they had even come from the Holy Place. But those who had acted uprightly were forgotten in the city. This too is a futile thing; 11 because the punishment decreed for an evil act is not promptly carried out; therefore people who plan to do evil are strengthened in their intentions. 12 For a sinner can do evil a hundred times and still live a long life; although I know that in the end things will go well with those who fear God, because they fear him. 13 But things will not go well with the wicked; and, like a shadow, he will not prolong his days; because he doesn’t fear God.
14 There is something frustrating that occurs on earth, namely, that there are righteous people to whom things happen as if they were doing wicked deeds; and, again, there are wicked people to whom things happen as if they were doing righteous deeds. I say that this too is pointless.
15 So I recommend enjoyment — a person can do nothing better under the sun than eat, drink and enjoy himself; this is what should accompany him as he does his work for as long as God gives him to live under the sun.
16 When I applied myself to gain wisdom and to observe how people occupy themselves on earth, that people’s eyes don’t see sleep either by day or by night, 17 then, on looking over all of God’s work, I realized that it is impossible to grasp all the activity taking place under the sun; because even if a person works hard at searching it out, he won’t grasp it; and even if a wise person thinks he knows it, he still won’t be able to grasp it.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.