Beginning

5 Do not be rash with your mouth, or let your heart be hasty to utter a thing before God. For God is in Heaven and you are on the Earth. Therefore, let your words be few.

² For as a dream comes by the multitude of business, so the voice of a fool is in the multitude of words.

³ When you have vowed a vow to God, do not delay in paying it. For He does not delight in fools. Pay what you have promised.

⁴ It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay it.

⁵ Do not allow your mouth to make your flesh sin, nor say before the Angel that this is ignorance. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?

⁶ For in the multitude of dreams and vanities are also many words. But fear God.

⁷ If in a country you see the oppression of the poor and the defrauding of judgment and justice, do not be astonished at the matter. For He who is higher than the highest watches. And there is higher than they.

⁸ And the abundance of the Earth is for all. The king also subsists on the field that is tilled.

⁹ He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver. And he who loves riches shall be without its fruit. This is also vanity.

¹⁰ When goods increase, those who consume them are increased. And what good comes to their owners, but the beholding with their eyes?

¹¹ The sleep of him who travails is sweet, whether he eats little or much. But the satiety of the rich will not allow him to sleep.

¹² There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the Sun: riches reserved to their owners for their evil.

¹³ And these riches perish by evil travail. And when he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.

¹⁴ As he came forth from his mother’s belly, he shall return, naked, to go as he came, and shall carry away nothing from his labor which he has caused to pass by his hand.

¹⁵ And this also is an evil sickness: in all points, as he came so shall he go. And what profit does he have who has labored for the wind?

¹⁶ Also, all his days he eats in darkness with much grief, and in his sorrow and anger.

¹⁷ Behold, then, what I have seen as good: that it is comely to eat and to drink and to take pleasure in all his labor in which he labors under the Sun, the whole number of the days of his life which God gives him. For this is his portion.

¹⁸ Also, to every man to whom God has given riches and treasures, to whom He gives power to eat of it, and to take his part, and to enjoy his labor — these are the gifts of God.

¹⁹ Surely, he will not well remember the days of his life, because God answers to the joy of his heart.

6 There is an evil which I saw under the Sun, and it is much among men:

² a man to whom God has given riches and treasures and honor, and he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires. But God does not give him power to eat of them, but a strange man eats them up. This is vanity. And this is an evil sickness.

³ If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, and the days of his years are multiplied, and his soul is not satisfied with good things, and he is not buried, I say that a miscarriage is better than he.

⁴ For he comes into vanity and goes into darkness. And his name shall be covered with darkness.

⁵ Also he has neither seen the Sun nor known it. This has more rest than the other,

⁶ even if he had lived a thousand years, twice, and still had seen no good. Shall not all go to one place?

⁷ All the labor of man is for his mouth. Yet the soul is not filled.

⁸ For what more has the wise man than the fool? What has the poor who knows how to walk before the living?

⁹ The sight of the eye is better than to walk in lusts. This also is vanity and grasping at the wind.

¹⁰ Whatever has been is now named. And it is known that it is man. And he cannot strive with him who is stronger than he.

7 Surely there are many things that increase vanity, and how does it benefit a man?

² For who knows what is good for man in life, in the number of the days of the life of his vanity, seeing he makes them as a shadow? For who can show a man what shall come after him under the Sun?

³ A good name is better than a good ointment, and the day of death is better than the day one is born.

⁴ It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting, because this is the end of all men. And the living shall take it to heart.

⁵ Anger is better than laughter; for by a sad look the heart is made better.

⁶ The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning. But the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

⁷ Better it is to hear the rebuke of a wise man than that a man should hear the song of fools.

⁸ For like the noise of the thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity.

⁹ Surely oppression makes a wise man mad. And the reward destroys the heart.

¹⁰ The end of a thing is better than its beginning. To be patient in spirit is better than to be proud in spirit.

¹¹ Do not hasten your spirit to anger. For anger rests in the bosom of fools.

¹² Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?” For you do not inquire wisely of this thing.

¹³ Wisdom is good with an inheritance, and excellent to those who see the Sun.

¹⁴ For man shall rest in the shadow of wisdom, and in the shadow of silver. But the excellency of the knowledge of wisdom gives life to its possessors.

¹⁵ Behold the work of God. For who can make straight that which He has made crooked?

¹⁶ In the day of wealth, be of good comfort. And in the day of affliction consider this: God has also made this as opposed to that, so that man would find nothing after Him.

¹⁷ I have seen all things in the days of my vanity. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness. And there is a wicked man who continues long in his malice.

¹⁸ Do not be overly righteous or make yourself overly wise. Why should you be desolate?

¹⁹ Be neither overly wicked nor foolish. Why should you not perish in your time?

²⁰ It is good that you lay hold on this, but still not withdraw your hand from that. For he who fears God shall come forth from them all.

²¹ Wisdom shall strengthen the wise men more than ten mighty princes who are in the city.

²² Surely there is no man righteous on the Earth, who does good and does not sin.

²³ Also, do not give your heart to all the words that men speak, lest you hear your servant cursing you.

²⁴ For oftentimes, your heart also knows that you likewise have cursed others.

²⁵ All this I have tested by wisdom. I thought, “I will be wise,” but it went far from me.

²⁶ It is far off. What may it be? It is profoundly deep. Who can find it?

²⁷ I have applied my heart to know and to inquire and to search wisdom and reason and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness of madness.

²⁸ And I find the woman whose heart is as nets and snares, and her hands as bands, more bitter than death. He who is good before God shall be delivered from her. But the sinner shall be taken by her.

²⁹ “Behold,” says the preacher, “this I have found, adding one by one to find the answer.

³⁰ “And yet my soul seeks, but I do not find it. I have found one man of a thousand. But I have not found a woman among them all.

³¹ “Lo, only this have I found: that God has made man righteous. But they have sought many inventions.”

8 Who is as the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? The wisdom of a man makes his face shine. And the strength of his face shall be changed.

² I say, “Guard to the commandment of the king, and the word of your oath to God.

³ “Do not hurry to go forth from His sight. Do not stand in an evil thing. For He will do whatever pleases Him.”

⁴ Wherever the word of the king is, there is power. And who shall say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵ He who keeps the commandment shall know no evil thing. And the heart of the wise shall know the time and judgment.

⁶ For to every purpose there is a time and judgment, because the misery of man is great upon him.

⁷ For he does not know that which shall be. For who can tell him when it shall be?

⁸ Man is not Lord over the spirit, to retain the spirit. Nor does he have power on the day of death or deliverance in the battle. Nor shall wickedness deliver its possessors.

⁹ All this have I seen and have given my heart to every work which is wrought under the Sun. And I saw a time that man rules over man to his own hurt.

¹⁰ And likewise I saw the wicked buried, and they returned. And those who came from the holy place were still forgotten in the city where they had done right. This also is vanity.

¹¹ Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. Therefore, the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil.

¹² Even if a sinner does evil a hundred times, and God prolongs his days, I still know that it shall be well with those who fear the LORD and do reverence before Him.

¹³ But it shall not be well to the wicked. Nor shall he prolong his days. He shall be like a shadow, because he did not fear before God.

¹⁴ There is a vanity which is done upon the Earth, so that there are righteous men to whom it comes according to the work of the wicked. And there are wicked men to whom it comes according to the work of the righteous. I also thought that this is vanity.

¹⁵ And I praised joy. For there is no goodness to man under the Sun, except to eat and to drink and to rejoice. For this is joined to his labor during his life that God has given him under the Sun.

¹⁶ When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to behold the business that is done on Earth — that the eyes of man takes sleep at neither day nor night —

¹⁷ then I beheld the whole work of God: that man cannot find out the work that is wrought under the Sun which man labors to seek and cannot find. Yea, and though the wise man may say he knows it, he cannot find it.