Chronological

7 ¶ A good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.

² It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.

³ Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made whole.

⁴ The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

⁵ It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.

⁶ The laughter of the fool is as the crackling of thorns under a pot, and this also (the laughter or prosperity of the fool) is vanity.

⁷ ¶ Surely oppression makes a wise man mad, and a gift destroys the heart.

⁸ Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and he who has suffered in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

⁹ Do not be hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools.

¹⁰ Never say, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.

¹¹ ¶ Knowledge is good with an inheritance and is the excellency of those that see the sun.

¹² For knowledge is a defence, and money is a defence; but wisdom excels in that it gives life to those that have it.

¹³ Consider the work of God; for who can make straight that which he has twisted?

¹⁴ In the day of good enjoy that which is good, but in the day of adversity open your eyes and learn: God also has made the one (the day of adversity) before the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.

¹⁵ All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perishes for his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongs his days by his wickedness.

¹⁶ Do not be too legalistic; neither make thyself over wise in thine own eyes: why should thou destroy thyself?

¹⁷ Do not be hasty to condemn, neither be thou foolish: why should thou die in the midst of thy labours?

¹⁸ It is good that thou should take hold of this; and also from the other not withdraw thy hand; for he that fears God shall come through with everything.

¹⁹ Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten mighty men who are in the city.

²⁰ For surely there is not a just man upon earth that in doing good does not sin.

²¹ Also do not take to heart all the words that are spoken lest thou hear thy slave speak evil of thee:

²² For thine own heart knows that thou thyself likewise hast spoken evil of others many times.

²³ ¶ All this I have proved by wisdom: I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me.

²⁴ That which has been is far off and that which is exceeding deep, who can find it out?

²⁵ I applied my heart to know and to search and to seek out wisdom and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the madness of error;

²⁶ and I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands are bonds; whosoever pleases God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be held prisoner in her.

²⁷ Behold, this I have found, saith the preacher, weighing things one by one to find out the answer,

²⁸ which my soul yet seeks, but I find not: one man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all those I have not found.

²⁹ Behold, this only have I found: that God has made man upright, but they have sought out many perversions.

8 ¶ Who is as the wise man? and who is as he who knows the interpretation of all things? The wisdom of this man shall make his face to shine, and the coarseness of his face shall be changed.

² I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment and the word of the covenant that thou hast made with God.

³ Do not be hasty to rebel against him; do not persist in any evil thing, for he shall do whatsoever pleases him;

⁴ because the word of the king is his power and who may say unto him, What doest thou?

⁵ Whosoever keeps the commandment shall experience no evil thing, and a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment.

⁶ ¶ Because for every will there is time and judgment, because the evil of man is great upon him,

⁷ for he does not know that which shall be; nor when it shall be. Who will teach it to him?

⁸ There is no man that has power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death, and weapons are of no use in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

⁹ ¶ All this I have seen and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: the time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt.

¹⁰ Then I also saw that the wicked who were buried came into remembrance more than those who had frequented the holy place, and these were forgotten in the city where they had worked uprightly. This also is vanity.

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

¹² Though a sinner does evil one hundred times and his judgment is prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with those that fear God, who fear before his presence;

¹³ but it shall never be well with the wicked, neither shall his days be prolonged, which are as a shadow, because he did not fear before the presence of God.

¹⁴ ¶ There is another vanity which is done upon the earth: that there are just men, who are recompensed as if they had done according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men, who are recompensed as if they had done according to the work of the righteous; I say that this also is vanity.

¹⁵ Therefore I commended joy because a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat and to drink and to be merry, for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God gives him under the sun.

¹⁶ Therefore I applied mine heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done upon the earth (for also there is he that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes).

¹⁷ And I have seen regarding all the works of God that man cannot attain to understand the work that is being done under the sun, because though a man labours to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; even though the wise man says that he knows it, yet he shall not be able to attain it.

9 ¶ Certainly I applied my heart unto all of this that I might declare all of this: that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God; no man knows either love or hatred by all that passes before them.

² All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean and to the unclean; to him that sacrifices and to him that does not sacrifice: as unto the good so unto the sinner; and unto him that swears as unto him that fears the oath.

³ This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all; and also that the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

⁴ ¶ For to him that is still among the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

⁵ For the living know that they shall die, but the dead do not know any thing; neither do they have any more reward, for their memory is placed into oblivion.

⁶ Even their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished; neither have they any more a portion in the age in any thing that is done under the sun.

⁷ Go, eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a joyful heart that thy works might be acceptable unto God.

⁸ Thy garments shall always be white, and thy head shall never lack ointment.

⁹ Live joyfully with the wife whom thou dost love all the days which thou art to live in this lake of vanity, which are given unto thee; all the days of thy vanity under the sun: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour in which thou dost work under the sun.

¹⁰ Whatever thy hand finds to do, do it with all thy might, for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, where thou goest.

¹¹ ¶ I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of prudence, nor yet grace to men of eloquence; but time and chance happens to them all.

¹² For man also does not know his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in the evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them.

¹³ ¶ I have also seen this wisdom under the sun, which is important unto me:

¹⁴ There was a little city and few men within it; and a great king came against it and besieged it and built great bulwarks against it;

¹⁵ now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no one remembered that same poor man.

¹⁶ Then I said, Wisdom is better than strength: even though the poor man’s knowledge is despised, and his words are not heard.

¹⁷ The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that rules among fools.

¹⁸ Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

10 ¶ Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: likewise a small act of folly unto him that is esteemed for wisdom and honour.

² A wise man’s heart is at his right hand, but a fool’s heart at his left.

³ Even when the fool walks by the way, he lacks prudence, and he says unto every one that he is a fool.

⁴ ¶ If the spirit of the ruler rises up against thee, do not leave thy place; for meekness pacifies great sins.

⁵ There is another evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceeds from the ruler:

⁶ Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich are seated in a low place.

⁷ I saw slaves upon horses, and princes walking as slaves upon the earth.

⁸ He that digs a pit shall fall into it, and whosoever breaks a hedge, a serpent shall bite him.

⁹ Whosoever moves the stones shall have tribulation along with it, and he that cuts the firewood shall be endangered by it.

¹⁰ If the iron is blunt, and he does not whet the edge, then he must put forth more strength, but the advantages of wisdom excel.

¹¹ If the serpent bites without being enchanted, then the babbler is no more.

¹² ¶ The words from the mouth of the wise man are grace, but the lips of the fool will swallow up himself.

¹³ The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.

¹⁴ The fool multiplies words and says, Man cannot tell what shall be, and what shall be after him, who can tell him?

¹⁵ The labour of the foolish wearies all of them because they do not know how to go to the city.

¹⁶ ¶ Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes banquet in the morning!

¹⁷ Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season for strength, and not for drunkenness!

¹⁸ By much slothfulness the building decays, and through idleness of the hands the rain drips throughout the house.

¹⁹ The banquet is made for pleasure, and wine makes merry; but money answers all things.

²⁰ Do not curse the king, not even in thy thought; and do not curse the rich even in the secret place of thy bedchamber; for the birds of the air shall carry the voice, and those who have wings shall tell the matter.

11 ¶ Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days.

² Give a portion to seven and even to eight, for thou dost not know what evil shall come upon the earth.

³ If the clouds are full of rain, they shall empty themselves upon the earth; and if the tree falls toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it shall remain.

⁴ He that observes the wind shall not sow, and he that regards the clouds shall not reap.

⁵ As thou dost not know what is the way of the spirit nor how the bones grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou dost not know the works of God who makes all.

⁶ In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, either this or that or whether they both shall be equally good.

⁷ ¶ Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun,

⁸ but if a man lives many years and rejoices in them all; yet if afterwards he remembers the days of darkness, for they shall be many, he shall say that everything that shall have happened to him is vanity.

⁹ Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.

¹⁰ Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart and put away evil from thy flesh; for childhood and youth are vanity.

12 ¶ Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth while the evil days do not come nor the years draw near when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

² before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain:

³ In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong men shall bow themselves and the grinders cease because they are few and those that look out of the windows are darkened;

⁴ and the doors outside shall be shut because the voice of the grinder is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird and all the daughters of song shall be humbled;

⁵ when they shall also be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and appetite shall fail: because man goes to the home of his age, and the mourners shall go about the streets;

⁶ before the silver chain is broken, and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel is broken at the cistern;

⁷ and the dust returns to the earth as it was before and the spirit returns unto God who gave it.

⁸ ¶ Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.

⁹ And the wiser the preacher became that much more did he teach wisdom to the people, causing them to listen and to search things out, and he composed many proverbs.

¹⁰ The preacher sought to find willing words and upright writings, even words of truth.

¹¹ The words of the wise are as goads and as nails hammered into place, those of the teachers of the congregations, who are placed under one Shepherd.

¹² My son, in addition to this, be admonished: of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

¹³ ¶ The conclusion of the entire sermon is heard: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole happiness of man.

¹⁴ For God shall bring every work to judgment with every secret thing, whether it is good or whether it is evil.