Ecclesiastes/Qohelet 7

¹ A good name is better than good ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth.

² It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, For that is the end of every man, and the living should take it to heart.

³ Sorrow is better than laughter, because when the face is sad the heart grows wiser.

⁴ The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

⁵ It is better to hearken to the wise man's rebuke than to hearken to the song of fools;

⁶ For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the fool's laughter.

⁷ For oppression can make a fool of a wise man, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

⁸ Better is the end of speech than its beginning; better is the patient spirit than the lofty spirit.

⁹ Do not in spirit become quickly discontented, for discontent lodges in the bosom of a fool.

¹⁰ Do not say: How is it that former times were better than these? For it is not in wisdom that you ask about this.

¹¹ Wisdom and an inheritance are good, and an advantage to those that see the sun.

¹² For the protection of wisdom is as the protection of money; and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.

¹³ Consider the work of God. Who can make straight what he has made crooked?

¹⁴ On a good day enjoy good things, and on an evil day consider: Both the one and the other God has made, so that man cannot find fault with him in anything.

¹⁵ I have seen all manner of things in my vain days: a just man perishing in his justice, and a wicked one surviving in his wickedness.

¹⁶ "Be not just to excess, and be not overwise, lest you be ruined.

¹⁷ Be not wicked to excess, and be not foolish. Why should you die before your time?"

¹⁸ It is good to hold to this rule, and not to let that one go; but he who fears God will win through at all events.

¹⁹ Wisdom is a better defense for the wise man than would be ten princes in the city,

²⁰ yet there is no man on earth so just as to do good and never sin.

²¹ Do not give heed to every word that is spoken lest you hear your servant speaking ill of you,

²² for you know in your heart that you have many times spoken ill of others.

²³ All these things I probed in wisdom. I said, "I will acquire wisdom"; but it was beyond me.

²⁴ What exists is far-reaching; it is deep, very deep: who can find it out?

²⁵ I turned my thoughts toward knowledge; I sought and pursued wisdom and reason, and I recognized that wickedness is foolish and folly is madness.

²⁶ More bitter than death I find the woman who is a hunter's trap, whose heart is a snare and whose hands are prison bonds. He who is pleasing to God will escape her, but the sinner will be entrapped by her.

²⁷ Behold, this have I found, says Qoheleth, adding one thing to another that I might discover the answer

²⁸ which my soul still seeks and has not found: One man out of a thousand have I come upon, but a woman among them all I have not found.

²⁹ Behold, only this have I found out: God made mankind straight, but men have had recourse to many calculations.