Ecclesiastes 7

The Contrast of Wisdom and Folly

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

2It is better
to go to
the house
of mourning
than to go to
the house
of feasting,
for this is the end
of all mankind,
and the living
will lay it
to heart.

3Sorrow is
better than laughter,
for by sadness
of face
the heart is
made glad.

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

5It is better
for a man to hear
the rebuke
of the wise
than to hear
the song of fools.

6For
as the crackling
of thorns
under a pot,
so is the laughter
of the fools;
this also is vanity.

7Surely oppression
drives the wise
into madness,
and a bribe
corrupts the heart.

8Better is the end
of a thing
than its beginning,
and the patient
in spirit
is better
than the proud
in spirit.

9Be not quick
in your spirit
to become angry,
for anger lodges
in the bosom
of fools.

10Say not,
"Why were the former days
better than these?"
For it is
not from wisdom
that you ask this.

11Wisdom is good
with an inheritance,
an advantage to those
who see the sun.

12For the protection
of wisdom
is like the protection
of money,
and the advantage
of knowledge
is that wisdom
preserves the life
of him who has it.

13Consider
the work of God:
who can make straight
what he has
made crooked?

14In the day
of prosperity
be joyful,
and in the day
of adversity
consider:
God has
made the one
as well
as the other,
so that man
may not
find out anything
that will be
after him.

15In my vain life
I have seen
everything.
There is
a righteous man
who perishes
in his righteousness,
and there is
a wicked man
who prolongs his life
in his evildoing.

16Be not
overly righteous,
and do not
make yourself too wise.
Why should you
destroy yourself?

17Be not
overly wicked,
neither be a fool.
Why should you die
before your time?

18It is good
that you
should take hold
of this,
and from that
withhold not
your hand,
for the one
who fears God
shall come out
from both of them.

19Wisdom gives strength
to the wise man
more than ten rulers
who are in a city.

20Surely
there is not
a righteous man
on earth who does good
and never sins.

21Do not take
to heart
all the things
that people say,
lest you hear
your servant cursing you.

22Your heart
knows that many times
you have
yourself cursed others.

23All this
I have tested
by wisdom.
I said,
"I will be wise,"
but it was far
from me.

24That which has been
is far off,
and deep,
very deep;
who can find it out?

25I turned my heart
to know and
to search out
and to seek
wisdom and the scheme
of things,
and to know the wickedness
of folly and the foolishness
that is madness.

26And I find something
more bitter
than death:
the woman whose heart
is snares and nets,
escapes her,
but the sinner
is taken by her.

27Behold,
this is
what I found,
says the Preacher,
while adding one thing
to another
to find the scheme
of things--

28which my soul
has sought
repeatedly,
but I have
not found.
One man
among a thousand
I found,
but a woman
among all these
I have not found.

29See,
this alone
I found,
that God made man
upright,
but they
have sought out
many schemes.