Ecclesiastes 7–8

People Generally Do Not Know What is Best for Them

7A good name is better than precious ointment,

and the day of death is better than the day of one’s birth.

²Better to go to the house of mourning

than to go to the house of feasting,

for death is the end of every person,

and the living should take it to his heart.

³Sorrow is better than laughter,

for by sadness of countenance the heart is made good.

⁴The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,

but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

⁵Better to listen to the rebuke of the wise

than for a man to listen to the song of fools.

⁶Like the sound of thorns under a pot,

so also the laughter of fools.

This also is vanity!

Wisdom—Although Vulnerable—is Beneficial

⁷Surely oppression makes a fool of the wise,

and a bribe corrupts the heart.

⁸The end of a matter is better than its beginning;

better to be slow to anger than hot-headed.^a

⁹Do not be quick in your spirit to anger,

for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.

¹⁰Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?”

For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

¹¹Wisdom is good with an inheritance;

it benefits the living.^b

¹²For wisdom offers protection like money offers protection.^c

But knowledge has an advantage—wisdom restores life to its possessor.

Humans Must Accept God’s Will and Make the Best of It

¹³Consider the work of God.

For who is able to make straight what he made crooked?

¹⁴In the day of prosperity, rejoice!

But in the day of adversity, consider!

For God made one in place of another

so that mortals cannot find out what will happen in the future.^d

The Law of Retribution Does Not Always Work—but It Does Sometimes

¹⁵I have seen all these things in my vain life:

Sometimes a righteous man perishes in spite of his righteousness,

and sometimes a wicked man lives a long life in spite of his evil.

¹⁶Do not be excessively^e righteous,

and do not act excessively wise, lest you destroy yourself.

¹⁷Do not act excessively wicked,

and do not be a fool, lest you die before your time.

¹⁸It is good to take hold of the one and also must not let go of the other;

for whoever fears God will hold both of them secure.

Wisdom is Valuable, but No One is Completely Righteous

¹⁹Wisdom gives more strength to the wise

than ten rulers who are in the city.

²⁰Surely there is no one righteous on the earth

who continually does good and never sins.

²¹Do not pay attention to everything people say,

lest you hear your own servant curse you.

²²For your heart knows

that you also have cursed others many times.

Absolute Wisdom is Unattainable

²³All this I have tested with wisdom. I said, “I will be wise!” but it was beyond my grasp.^{f 24}Whatever is—it is far beyond comprehension.^g Who can discover it?

²⁵I set my mind to try to seek wisdom and the plan, and to know that wickedness is foolishness and that folly is delusion. ²⁶I myself found that more bitter than death is the woman who is a trap, whose heart is a snare, and whose hands are bonds. The one who pleases God escapes from her, but the sinner is caught by her. ²⁷“Look! I found this,” said the Teacher,^h “while trying to find how the plan fits together. ²⁸What my heart sought, I did not find. Although I found one righteous man among one thousand, I did not find one upright woman among all these. ²⁹Look! This alone I found: God made mankind upright, but they have devised many schemes.”

Wisdom is Valuable

8Who is like the sage?

Who knows the interpretation of a thing?

A man’s wisdom makes his face shine,

and the hardness of his face is changed.

²Keep the command of the king^a

because of your oath to God.^b

³Do not be terrified of his presence!

Go at once and do not delay when a matter is unpleasant,

for he can do anything that he desires.

⁴Since the word of the king is supreme,

no one can say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵Whoever obeys his command will not suffer disaster.

The wise mind knows the proper time and the right procedure.

⁶For there is a proper time and right procedure for every matter,

even though the trouble of man weighs heavy upon him.

No One Knows the Future

⁷Surely no one knows what will be,

so who can tell anyone what will happen?

⁸Just as no one can control the wind to restrain the wind,

so also no one can control the day of his death.

Just as no one is discharged in time of war,

so wickedness will not deliver the wicked.

The World Marred by Oppression and Injustice

⁹I saw all this as I applied my heart to all the deeds done under the sun: sometimes those in authority harm others.^{c 10}Meanwhile, I saw the wicked being honorably buried, but those who came and went from the holy place were forgotten in the city, even though they had done so. This also is vanity!

Although Evil is Not Punished Swiftly, God Does Eventually Punish Sinners

¹¹Because sentence against an evil deed is not carried out quickly, the heart of humans^d fills up within them to do evil. ¹²Although the sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I also know that it will be good for those who fear God—because they fear his presence.^{e 13}But it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not prolong their days, like the shadow; because there is no fearing God’s presence.^{f 14}There is a vanity that happens on earth: sometimes the righteous suffer what the wicked deserve, and sometimes the wicked receive what the righteous deserve. I said, “This also is vanity!”

Humans Should Enjoy the Life That God Gives to Them

¹⁵So I recommend enjoyment. For there is nothing better for man under the sun than to eat and to drink and to rejoice. This will accompany him in his toil the days of his life that God gives to him under the sun.

No One Can Discover the Rhyme and Reason for Things

¹⁶I applied my mind to know wisdom and to understand the business that is done on earth—how neither day nor night one’s eyes see sleep. ¹⁷Then I saw all the work of God—man is not able to discover the work that is done under the sun. Although man may toil in seeking, he cannot find it. Even if a wise man claims that he knows it, he cannot find it.