Beginning

5 ^1-3 As you enter the Temple, keep your ears open and your mouth shut! Don’t be a fool who doesn’t even realize it is sinful to make rash promises to God, for he is in heaven and you are only here on earth, so let your words be few. Just as being too busy gives you nightmares, so being a fool makes you a blabbermouth. ⁴ So when you talk to God and vow to him that you will do something, don’t delay in doing it, for God has no pleasure in fools. Keep your promise to him. ⁵ It is far better not to say you’ll do something than to say you will and then not do it. ^6-7 In that case, your mouth is making you sin. Don’t try to defend yourself by telling the messenger from God that it was all a mistake to make the vow.^[a] That would make God very angry; and he might destroy your prosperity. Dreaming instead of doing is foolishness, and there is ruin in a flood of empty words; fear God instead.

⁸ If you see some poor man being oppressed by the rich, with miscarriage of justice anywhere throughout the land, don’t be surprised! For every official is under orders from higher up, and the higher officials look up to their superiors. And so the matter is lost in red tape and bureaucracy.^{[b] 9} And over them all is the king. Oh, for a king who is devoted to his country! Only he can bring order from this chaos.

¹⁰ He who loves money shall never have enough. The foolishness of thinking that wealth brings happiness! ¹¹ The more you have, the more you spend, right up to the limits of your income. So what is the advantage of wealth—except perhaps to watch it as it runs through your fingers! ¹² The man who works hard sleeps well whether he eats little or much, but the rich must worry and suffer insomnia.

^13-14 There is another serious problem I have seen everywhere—savings are put into risky investments that turn sour, and soon there is nothing left to pass on to one’s son. ¹⁵ The man who speculates is soon back to where he began—with nothing. ¹⁶ This, as I said, is a very serious problem, for all his hard work has been for nothing; he has been working for the wind. It is all swept away. ¹⁷ All the rest of his life he is under a cloud—gloomy, discouraged, frustrated, and angry.

¹⁸ Well, one thing, at least, is good: It is for a man to eat well, drink a good glass of wine, accept his position in life, and enjoy his work whatever his job may be, for however long the Lord may let him live. ^19-20 And, of course, it is very good if a man has received wealth from the Lord and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and to accept your lot in life—that is indeed a gift from God. The person who does that will not need to look back with sorrow on his past, for God gives him joy.

6 Yes, but there is a very serious evil which I have seen everywhere— ² God has given to some men very great wealth and honor so that they can have everything they want, but he doesn’t give them the health to enjoy it, and they die and others get it all! This is absurd, a hollow mockery, and a serious fault.

³ Even if a man has a hundred sons and as many daughters and lives to be very old, but leaves so little money at his death that his children can’t even give him a decent burial—I say that he would be better off born dead. ⁴ For though his birth would then be futile and end in darkness, without even a name, ⁵ never seeing the sun or even knowing its existence, yet that is better than to be an old, unhappy man. ⁶ Though a man lives a thousand years twice over but doesn’t find contentment—well, what’s the use?

^7-8 Wise men and fools alike spend their lives scratching for food and never seem to get enough. Both have the same problem, yet the poor man who is wise lives a far better life. ⁹ A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush; mere dreaming of nice things is foolish; it’s chasing the wind.

¹⁰ All things are decided by fate; it was known long ago what each man would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny.

¹¹ The more words you speak, the less they mean, so why bother to speak at all?

¹² In these few days of our empty lifetimes, who can say how one’s days can best be spent? Who can know what will prove best for the future after he is gone? For who knows the future?

7 A good reputation is more valuable than the most expensive perfume.

The day one dies is better than the day he is born! ² It is better to spend your time at funerals than at festivals. For you are going to die, and it is a good thing to think about it while there is still time. ³ Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us. ⁴ Yes, a wise man thinks much of death, while the fool thinks only of having a good time now.

⁵ It is better to be criticized by a wise man than to be praised by a fool! ⁶ For a fool’s compliment is as quickly gone as paper in fire, and it is silly to be impressed by it.

⁷ The wise man is turned into a fool by a bribe; it destroys his understanding.

⁸ Finishing is better than starting! Patience is better than pride! ⁹ Don’t be quick-tempered—that is being a fool.

¹⁰ Don’t long for “the good old days,” for you don’t know whether they were any better than these!

¹¹ To be wise is as good as being rich; in fact, it is better. ¹² You can get anything by either wisdom or money, but being wise has many advantages.

¹³ See the way God does things and fall into line. Don’t fight the facts of nature.^[c] Who can straighten what he has made crooked? ¹⁴ Enjoy prosperity whenever you can, and when hard times strike, realize that God gives one as well as the other—so that everyone will realize that nothing is certain in this life.

^15-17 In this silly life I have seen everything, including the fact that some of the good die young and some of the wicked live on and on. So don’t be too good or too wise! Why destroy yourself? On the other hand, don’t be too wicked either—don’t be a fool! Why should you die before your time?

¹⁸ Tackle every task that comes along, and if you fear God, you can expect his blessing.

¹⁹ A wise man is stronger than the mayors of ten big cities! ²⁰ And there is not a single man in all the earth who is always good and never sins.

^21-22 Don’t eavesdrop! You may hear your servant cursing you! For you know how often you yourself curse others!

²³ I have tried my best to be wise. I declared, “I will be wise,” but it didn’t work. ²⁴ Wisdom is far away and very difficult to find. ²⁵ I searched everywhere, determined to find wisdom and the reason for things . . . to prove to myself the wickedness of folly and that foolishness is madness.

²⁶ A prostitute^[d] is more bitter than death. May it please God that you escape from her, but sinners don’t evade her snares.

^27-28 This is my conclusion, says the Preacher. Step by step I came to this result after researching in every direction: One tenth of one percent of the men I interviewed could be said to be wise, but not one woman!

²⁹ And I found that though God has made men upright, each has turned away to follow his own downward road.

8 How wonderful to be wise, to understand things, to be able to analyze them and interpret them. Wisdom lights up a man’s face, softening its hardness.

^2-3 Obey the king as you have vowed to do. Don’t always be trying to get out of doing your duty, even when it’s unpleasant. For the king punishes those who disobey. ⁴ The king’s command is backed by great power, and no one can withstand it or question it. ⁵ Those who obey him will not be punished. The wise man will find a time and a way to do what he says. ^6-7 Yes, there is a time and a way for everything, though man’s trouble lies heavy upon him; for how can he avoid what he doesn’t know is going to happen?

⁸ No one can hold back his spirit from departing; no one has the power to prevent his day of death, for there is no discharge from that obligation and that dark battle. Certainly a man’s wickedness is not going to help him then.

^9-10 I have thought deeply about all that goes on here in the world, where people have the power of injuring each other. I have seen wicked men buried, and as their friends returned from the cemetery, having forgotten all the dead man’s evil deeds, these men were praised in the very city where they had committed their many crimes! How odd! ¹¹ Because God does not punish sinners instantly, people feel it is safe to do wrong. ¹² But though a man sins a hundred times and still lives, I know very well that those who fear God will be better off, ¹³ unlike the wicked, who will not live long, good lives—their days shall pass away as quickly as shadows because they don’t fear God.

¹⁴ There is a strange thing happening here upon the earth: Providence seems to treat some good men as though they were wicked, and some wicked men as though they were good. This is all very vexing and troublesome!

¹⁵ Then I decided to spend my time having fun because I felt that there was nothing better in all the earth than that a man should eat, drink, and be merry, with the hope that this happiness would stick with him in all the hard work that God gives to mankind everywhere.

^16-17 In my search for wisdom I observed all that was going on everywhere across the earth—ceaseless activity, day and night. (Of course, only God can see everything, and even the wisest man who says he knows everything, doesn’t!)