Ecclesiastes 7–8

Good Advice About How to Live

7A good name is better than fine perfume.

People can learn more from sobbing when someone dies

than from being happy when someone is born.

²So it’s better to go where people are sobbing

than to go where people are having a good time.

Everyone will die someday.

Those who are still living

should really think about that.

³Sadness is good for the heart.

That’s why sorrow is better than laughter.

⁴Those who are wise are found where there is sorrow.

But foolish people are found where there is pleasure.

⁵Pay attention to a wise man’s warning.

That’s better than listening to the songs of those who are foolish.

⁶A foolish person’s laughter

is like the crackling of thorns burning under a pot.

That doesn’t have any meaning either.

⁷When a wise man takes wealth by force, he becomes foolish.

It is sinful to take money from people who want special favors.

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

So it’s better to be patient than proud.

⁹Don’t become angry quickly.

Anger lives in the hearts of foolish people.

¹⁰Don’t say, “Why were things better in the good old days?”

It isn’t wise to ask that kind of question.

¹¹Wisdom is a good thing.

It’s like getting a share of the family wealth.

It benefits those who live on this earth.

¹²Wisdom provides safety,

just as money provides safety.

But here’s the advantage of wisdom.

It guards the lives of those who have it.

¹³Think about what God has done.

Who can make straight

what he has made crooked?

¹⁴When times are good, be happy.

But when times are bad, here’s something to think about.

God has made bad times.

He has also made good times.

So a man can’t find out anything

about what’s ahead for him.

¹⁵In my meaningless life here’s what I’ve seen.

I’ve seen a godly man dying

even though he is godly.

And I’ve seen a sinful man living a long time

even though he is sinful.

¹⁶Don’t claim to be better than you are.

And don’t claim to be wiser than you are.

Why destroy yourself?

¹⁷Don’t be too sinful.

And don’t be foolish.

Why die before your time comes?

¹⁸It’s good to hold on to both of those things.

Don’t let go of either one.

A man who has respect for God will avoid

going too far in either direction.

¹⁹Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful

than ten rulers in a city.

²⁰There isn’t anyone on earth

who does only what is right and never sins.

²¹Don’t pay attention to everything people say.

If you do, you might hear your servant calling down a curse on you.

²²Many times you yourself have called down curses on others.

Deep down inside, you know that’s true.

²³I used wisdom to put all of those things to the test. I said,

“I’ve made up my mind to be wise.”

But it was more than I could accomplish.

²⁴No matter what else wisdom may be,

it’s far away and very deep.

Who can find it?

²⁵So I tried to understand wisdom more completely.

I wanted to study it and figure it out.

I tried to find out everything I could about it.

I tried to understand why it’s foolish to be evil.

I wanted to see why choosing foolishness is so unwise.

²⁶A woman who hunts a man down

is more painful than death.

Her heart is like a trap.

Her hands are like chains.

A man who pleases God will try to get away from her.

But she will trap a sinner.

²⁷“Look,” says the Teacher. “Here’s what I’ve discovered.

“I added one thing to another to find out

everything I could about wisdom.

²⁸I searched and searched

but found very little.

I did find one honest man among a thousand.

But I didn’t find one honest woman among a thousand.

²⁹Here’s the only other thing I found.

God made men honest.

But they’ve made many evil plans.”

8Who is like a wise man?

Who knows how to explain things?

Wisdom makes a man’s face bright.

It softens the look on his face.

Obey the King

²I’m telling you to obey the king’s command. You took an oath to serve him. You made a promise to God. ³Don’t be in a hurry to quit your job in the palace. Don’t stand up for something the king doesn’t like. He’ll do anything he wants to. ⁴He has the final word. So who can ask him, “What are you doing?”

⁵No one who obeys his command will be harmed.

Those who are wise will know the proper time and way to approach him.

⁶There’s a proper time and way for people to do everything.

That’s true even though a man might be suffering greatly.

⁷No one knows what lies ahead.

So who can tell a person what’s going to happen?

⁸He can’t stop the wind from blowing.

And he doesn’t have the power to decide when he will die.

No one is let out of the army in times of war.

And evil won’t let go of those who practice it.

⁹I understood all of those things. I used my mind to study everything that’s done on earth. A man sometimes makes life hard for others. But he ends up hurting himself.

¹⁰I also saw sinful people being buried. They used to come and go from the place of worship. And others praised them in the city where they worshiped. That doesn’t have any meaning either.

¹¹Sometimes the sentence for a crime isn’t carried out quickly. So people make plans to commit even more crimes.

¹²An evil man may be guilty of a hundred crimes and still live a long time. But I know that things will go better with men who have great respect for God. ¹³Sinful people don’t respect God. So things won’t go well with them. Like a shadow, they won’t be around very long.

¹⁴Here’s something else on this earth that doesn’t have any meaning. Sometimes godly men get what sinful people should receive. And sinful men get what godly people should receive. Here’s what I’m telling you. That doesn’t have any meaning either.

¹⁵So I advise everyone to enjoy life. A man on this earth can’t do anything better than eat and drink and be glad. Then he will enjoy his work. He’ll be happy all the days of the life God has given him on earth.

¹⁶I used my mind to understand what it really means to be wise. I wanted to observe the hard work man does on earth. He doesn’t close his eyes and go to sleep day or night.

¹⁷I saw everything God has done. No one can understand what happens on earth. Man might try very hard to figure it out. But he still can’t discover what it all means. A wise man might claim he knows. But he can’t really understand it either.