Ecclesiastes 7–8

CHAPTER 7

Wisdom and Folly Contrasted

¹Better is a ^agood name than good oil,

And better is the ^bday of one’s death than the day of one’s birth.

²Better to go to a house of mourning

Than to go to a house of feasting

Because ¹that is the ^aend of all mankind,

And the living ^bputs this in his heart.

^3aBetter is vexation than laughter,

For ^bwhen a face is sad a heart may be merry.

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

While the heart of fools is in the house of gladness.

⁵Better to ^alisten to the rebuke of a wise man

Than for one to listen to the song of fools.

⁶For as the crackling sound of ^athorn bushes under a pot,

So is the ^blaughter of the fool;

And this too is vanity.

⁷For ^aoppression gives a wise man over to madness,

And a ^bbribe ¹destroys the heart.

⁸Better is the ^aend of a matter than its beginning;

^bBetter is patience of spirit than haughtiness of spirit.

⁹Do not be ^1aeager in your spirit to be vexed,

For vexation rests in the bosom of fools.

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

For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

¹¹Wisdom along with an inheritance is good

And an ^aadvantage to those who see the sun.

¹²For ^awisdom is a ^bshadow of protection as money is a shadow of protection,

And the advantage of knowledge is that ^cwisdom preserves the lives of its masters.

¹³See the ^awork of God,

For who is ^bable to straighten what He has bent?

^14aIn the day when there is good be of good cheer,

But ^bin the day when there is evil see—

God has made the one as well as the other

So that man will ^cnot find out anything that will be after him.

¹⁵I have seen everything during my ^adays of vanity; there is ^ba righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is ^ca wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.

¹⁶Do not be excessively ^arighteous, and do not ^bbe overly wise. Why should you make yourself desolate?

¹⁷Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be a simpleminded fool. Why should you ^adie before your time?

¹⁸It is good that you seize one thing and also not ¹let go of the other; for the one who ^afears God comes forth with ²both of them.

^19aWisdom strengthens a wise man more than ten men with power who are in a city.

²⁰Indeed, ^athere is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.

²¹Also, do not give your heart to all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your slave ^acursing you.

²²For your heart also knows that you likewise have many times cursed others.

²³I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, “I will be wise,” ^abut it was far from me.

²⁴What has been is far away and ^aexceedingly deep. ^bWho can find it?

²⁵I ^aturned my heart to know, to explore, and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the wickedness of foolishness and the simpleminded folly of madness.

²⁶And I found more ^abitter than death the woman whose heart is ^bsnares and nets, whose hands are chains. ^cOne who is good before God will escape from her, but ^dthe sinner will be captured by her.

²⁷“See, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “adding one thing to another to find an explanation,

²⁸which my soul still seeks but has not found. I have found one man out of a thousand, but I have not found a ^awoman among all these.

²⁹“See, I have found only this, that ^aGod made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”

CHAPTER 8

Keep the Command of the King

¹Who is like the wise man and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom ^aillumines his face and causes his ^bstern face to ¹beam.

²I say, “Keep the ¹command of the king because of the ^asworn oath ²before God.

³“Do not be in a hurry ^ato go from his presence. Do not stand in an evil matter, for he will do whatever he pleases.”

⁴Since the word of the king is powerful, ^awho will say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵He who ^akeeps a royal command ^bexperiences no evil thing, for a wise heart knows the proper time and custom.

⁶For ^athere is a proper time and custom for every ¹matter, though a man’s trouble is multiplied upon him.

⁷If no one ^aknows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?

^8aThere is no man who has power to restrain the wind with the wind, and there is none who has power over the day of death; and there is no discharge in the time of war, and ^bwickedness will not provide escape to its masters.

⁹All this I have seen and given my heart to every work that has been done under the sun wherein a man has ^apower over another man to his calamity.

¹⁰So then, I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out from the holy place, and they are ^asoon forgotten in the city where they did thus. This too is vanity.

¹¹Because the ^asentence against an evil work is not executed quickly, therefore ^bthe hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.

¹²Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may ^aprolong his life, still I know that it will be ^bwell for those who fear God, who fear ¹Him openly.

¹³But it will ^anot be well for the wicked man, and he will not prolong his days like a ^bshadow, because he does not fear ¹God openly.

¹⁴There is vanity which is done on the earth, that is, there are ^arighteous men to whom it ¹happens according to the works of the wicked. On the other hand, there are ^bwicked men to whom it ²happens according to the works of the righteous. I say that this too is vanity.

¹⁵So I laud gladness, for there is nothing good for ^aa man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to ¹be merry, and this will join with him in his labor throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.

¹⁶When I ^agave my heart to know wisdom and to see the endeavor which has been done on the earth (even though one ^bnever sees sleep with his eyes day or night),

¹⁷and I saw every work of God, I concluded that ^aman cannot find out the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not find it out; and ^bthough the wise man should say, “I know,” he cannot find it out.