Ecclesiastes 7

Complete Jewish Bible

7 A good name is better than perfumed oil,
and the day of death better than the day of birth.
² Better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for all are destined to be mourned;
the living should lay this to heart.
³ Grief is better than laughter,
for sadness can improve a person.
⁴ The thoughts of the wise are in the house of mourning,
but the thoughts of fools are in the house of pleasure.
⁵ It is better to hear the rebukes of the wise
than to listen to the songs of fools.
⁶ For the laughter of fools is like the crackling of thorns
burning under a pot; this too is pointless.
⁷ But oppression can make a wise man stupid;
also a gift can destroy understanding.

⁸ The end of something is better than its beginning,
so the patient are better than the proud.
⁹ Don’t be quick to get angry,
for [only] fools nurse anger.

¹⁰ Don’t ask why the old days were better than now,
because that is a foolish question.
¹¹ Wisdom is good, along with possessions,
an advantage to all who see the sun.
¹² For wisdom is a shelter,
and money is a shelter,
but the advantage of knowledge is
that wisdom keeps the one who has it alive.

¹³ Consider the work of God:
who can make straight what he has made crooked?
¹⁴ When things are going well, enjoy yourself;
but when things are going badly, consider
that God made the one alongside the other,
so that people would learn nothing of their futures.
¹⁵ In my pointless life, I’ve seen everything —
from the righteous person perishing in his uprightness
to the wicked one who lives a long life
and keeps on doing wrong.
¹⁶ So don’t be overly righteous or overly wise;
why should you disappoint yourself?
¹⁷ But don’t be overly wicked, and don’t be foolish;
why should you die before your time?
¹⁸ Don’t grasp just one of these rules;
take hold of the other as well;
for he who is in fear of God
will live by both of them.
¹⁹ To a wise man wisdom is better protection
than ten rulers in a city.
²⁰ For there isn’t a righteous person on earth
who does [only] good and never sins.

²¹ Also, don’t take seriously every word spoken,
such as when you hear your servant speaking badly of you;
²² because often, as you yourself know,
you have spoken badly of others.

²³ All this I have put to the test of wisdom;
I said, “I will acquire wisdom”;
but wisdom remained far away from me.
²⁴ That which exists is far away
and deep, so deep, that it can’t be discovered.

²⁶ I found more bitter than death
the woman who is a trap,
whose heart is a snare
and whose hands are like prison chains.
The man who pleases God will escape from her,
but the sinner will be caught by her.
²⁷ I have found this — says Kohelet —
adding one thing to another to reach a conclusion,
²⁸ I searched a long time without finding it:
one man in a thousand I have found,
but a woman among all those I have not found.
²⁹ This is the only thing I have found,
that God made human beings upright,
but they have devised many schemes.