The Contrast of Wisdom and Folly
aA good name is better than precious ointment,
and bthe day of death than the day of birth.
2 It 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 alay it to heart.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter,
afor by sadness of face the heart is made glad.
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 abetter for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise
than to hear the song of fools.
6 aFor as the crackling of bthorns under a pot,
so is the laughter of the fools;
this also is vanity.
7 Surely aoppression drives the wise into madness,
and ba bribe corrupts the heart.
8 Better is the end of a thing than its beginning,
and athe patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
9 aBe not quick in your spirit to become angry,
bfor anger lodges in the heart of fools.
10 Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance,
an advantage to those who asee the sun.
12 For the protection of wisdom is like athe protection of money,
and the advantage of knowledge is that bwisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
13 Consider athe work of God:
bwho can make straight what he has made crooked?
14 aIn the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, bso that man may not find out anything that will be after him.
15 In my avain life I have seen everything. There is ba righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who cprolongs his life in his evildoing. 16 Be not overly righteous, and do not amake yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. aWhy should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you should take hold of athis, and from bthat cwithhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.
19 aWisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.
20 Surely athere is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
21 Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear ayour servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that amany times you yourself have cursed others.
23 All this I have tested by wisdom. aI said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. 24 That which has been is far off, and adeep, very deep; bwho can find it out?
25 aI 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. 26 And I find something more abitter than death: bthe woman whose heart is csnares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but dthe sinner is taken by her. 27 Behold, this is what I found, says athe Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— 28 which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. aOne man among a thousand I found, but ba woman among all these I have not found. 29 See, this alone I found, that aGod made man upright, but bthey have sought out many schemes.