Chapter 7

Wisdom and Folly Contrasted

1 A agood name is better than a good ointment,

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

2 It is better to go to a house of mourning

Than to go to a house of feasting,

Because 1that is the aend of every man,

And the living 2btakes it to 3heart.

3 aSorrow is better than laughter,

For bwhen a face is sad a heart may be happy.

4 The 1mind of the wise is in the house of mourning,

While the 1mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.

5 It is better to alisten to the rebuke of a wise man

Than for one to listen to the song of fools.

6 For as the 1crackling of athorn bushes under a pot,

So is the blaughter of the fool;

And this too is futility.

7 For aoppression makes a wise man mad,

And a bbribe 1corrupts the heart.

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

bPatience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit.

9 Do not be 1aeager in your heart to be angry,

For anger resides in the bosom of fools.

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

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

11 Wisdom along with an inheritance is good

And an aadvantage to those who see the sun.

12 For awisdom is 1protection just as money is 1protection,

But the advantage of knowledge is that bwisdom preserves the lives of its possessors.

13 Consider the awork of God,

For who is bable to straighten what He has bent?

14 aIn the day of prosperity be happy,

But bin the day of adversity consider—

God has made the one as well as the other

So that man will cnot discover anything that will be after him.

15 I have seen everything during my 1alifetime of futility; there is ba righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is ca wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness.

16 Do not be excessively arighteous and do not bbe overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?

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

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

19 aWisdom strengthens a wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.

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

21 Also, do not 1take seriously all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your servant acursing you.

22 For 1you also have realized that you likewise have many times cursed others.

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

24 What has been is remote and aexceedingly 1mysterious. bWho can discover it?

25 I 1adirected my 2mind to know, to investigate and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of folly and the foolishness of madness.

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

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

28 which 1I am still seeking but have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a awoman among all these.

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