²A man to whom God hath given riches, and substance, and honour, and his soul wanteth nothing of all that he desireth: yet God doth not give him power to eat thereof, but a stranger shall eat it up. This is vanity and a great misery.

³If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, and attain to a great age, and his soul make no use of the goods of his substance, and he be without burial: of this man I pronounce, that the untimely born is better than he.

⁴For he came in vain, and goeth to darkness, and his name shall be wholly forgotten.

⁵He hath not seen the sun, nor known the distance of good and evil:

⁶Although he lived two thousand years, and hath not enjoyed good things: do not all make haste to one place?

⁷All the labour of man is for his mouth, but his soul shall not be filled.

⁸What hath the wise man more than the fool? and what the poor man, but to go thither, where there is life?

⁹Better it is to see what thou mayst desire, than to desire that which thou canst not know. But this also is vanity, and presumption of spirit.

¹⁰He that shall be, his name is already called: and it is known, that he is a man, and cannot contend in judgment with him that is stronger than himself.

¹¹There are many words that have much vanity in disputing.

Chapter 7

What needeth a man to seek things that are above him, whereas he knoweth not what is profitable for him in his life, in all the days of his pilgrimage, and the time that passeth like a shadow? Or who can tell him what shall be after him under the sun?

²A good name is better than precious ointments: and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.

³It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting: for in that we are put in mind of the end of all, and the living thinketh what is to come.

⁴Anger is better than laughter: because by the sadness of the countenance the mind of the offender is corrected.

⁵The heart of the wise is where there is mourning, and the heart of fools where there is mirth.

⁶It is better to be rebuked by a wise man, than to be deceived by the flattery of fools.

⁷For as the crackling of thorns burning under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool: now this also is vanity.

⁸Oppression troubleth the wise, and shall destroy the strength of his heart.

⁹Better is the end of a speech than the beginning. Better is the patient man than the presumptuous.

¹⁰Be not quickly angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of a fool.

¹¹Say not: What thinkest thou is the cause that former times were better than they are now? for this manner of question is foolish.

¹²Wisdom with riches is more profitable, and bringeth more advantage to them that see the sun.

¹³For as wisdom is a defence, so money is a defence: but learning and wisdom excel in this, that they give life to him that possesseth them.

¹⁴Consider the works of God, that no man can correct whom he hath despised.

¹⁵In the good day enjoy good things, and beware beforehand of the evil day: for God hath made both the one and the other, that man may not find against him any just complaint.

¹⁶These things also I saw in the days of my vanity: A just man perisheth in his justice, and a wicked man liveth a long time in his wickedness.

¹⁷Be not over just: and be not more wise than is necessary, lest thou become stupid.

¹⁸Be not overmuch wicked: and be not foolish, lest thou die before thy time.

¹⁹It is good that thou shouldst hold up the just, yea and from him withdraw not thy hand: for he that feareth God, neglecteth nothing.

²⁰Wisdom hath strengthened the wise more than ten princes of the city.

²¹For there is no just man upon earth, that doth good, and sinneth not.

²²But do not apply thy heart to all words that are spoken: lest perhaps thou hear thy servant reviling thee.

²³For thy conscience knoweth that thou also hast often spoken evil of others.

²⁴I have tried all things in wisdom. I have said: I will be wise: and it departed farther from me,

²⁵Much more than it was: it is a great depth, who shall find it out?

²⁶I have surveyed all things with my mind, to know, and consider, and seek out wisdom and reason: and to know the wickedness of the fool, and the error of the imprudent:

²⁷And I have found a woman more bitter than death, who is the hunter’s snare, and her heart is a net, and her hands are bands. He that pleaseth God shall escape from her: but he that is a sinner, shall be caught by her.

²⁸Lo this have I found, said Ecclesiastes, weighing one thing after another, that I might find out the account,

²⁹Which yet my soul seeketh, and I have not found it. One man among a thousand I have found, a woman among them all I have not found.

³⁰Only this I have found, that God made man right, and he hath entangled himself with an infinity of questions. Who is as the wise man? and who hath known the resolution of the word?

Chapter 8

The wisdom of a man shineth in his countenance, and the most mighty will change his face.

²I observe the mouth of the king, and the commandments of the oath of God.

³Be not hasty to depart from his face, and do not continue in an evil work: for he will do all that pleaseth him:

⁴And his word is full of power: neither can any man say to him: Why dost thou so?

⁵He that keepeth the commandment, shall find no evil. The heart of a wiser man understandeth time and answer.

⁶There is a time and opportunity for every business, and great affliction for man:

⁷Because he is ignorant of things past, and things to come he cannot know by any messenger.

⁸It is not in man’s power to stop the spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death, neither is he suffered to rest when war is at hand, neither shall wickedness save the wicked.

⁹All these things I have considered, and applied my heart to all the works that are done under the sun. Sometimes one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.

¹⁰I saw the wicked buried: who also when they were yet living were in the holy place, and were praised in the city as men of just works: but this also is vanity.

¹¹For because sentence is not speedily pronounced against the evil, the children of men commit evils without any fear.

¹²But though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and by patience be borne withal, I know from thence that it shall be well with them that fear God, who dread his face.

¹³But let it not be well with the wicked, neither let his days be prolonged, but as a shadow let them pass away that fear not the face of the Lord.

¹⁴There is also another vanity, which is done upon the earth. There are just men to whom evils happen, as though they had done the works of the wicked: and there are wicked men, who are as secure as though they had the deeds of the just: but this also I judge most vain.

¹⁵Therefore I commended mirth, because there was no good for a man under the sun, but to eat, and drink, and be merry, and that he should take nothing else with him of his labour in the days of his life, which God hath given him under the sun.

¹⁶And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to understand the distraction that is upon earth: for there are some that day and night take no sleep with their eyes.

¹⁷And I understood that man can find no reason of all those works of God that are done under the sun: and the more he shall labour to seek, so much the less shall he find: yea, though the wise man shall say, that he knoweth it, he shall not be able to find it.

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