Wisdom and Folly Contrasted
Better is a agood name than good oil,
And better is the bday of one’s death than the day of one’s birth.
2 Better to go to a house of mourning
Than to go to a house of feasting
Because that is the aend of all mankind,
And the living bputs this in his heart.
3 aBetter is vexation than laughter,
For bwhen a face is sad a heart may be merry.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
While the heart of fools is in the house of gladness.
5 Better to alisten to the rebuke of a wise man
Than for one to listen to the song of fools.
6 For as the crackling sound of athorn bushes under a pot,
So is the blaughter of the fool;
And this too is vanity.
7 For aoppression gives a wise man over to madness,
And a bbribe destroys the heart.
8 Better is the aend of a matter than its beginning;
bBetter is patience of spirit than haughtiness of spirit.
9 Do not be aeager in your spirit to be vexed,
For vexation rests 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 a bshadow of protection as money is a shadow of protection,
And the advantage of knowledge is that cwisdom preserves the lives of its masters.
13 See the awork of God,
For who is bable to straighten what He has bent?
14 aIn the day when there is good be of good cheer,
But bin the day when there is evil see—
God has made the one as well as the other
So that man will cnot find out anything that will be after him.
15 I have seen everything during my adays of vanity; there is ba righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is ca wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. 16 Do not be excessively arighteous, and do not bbe overly wise. Why should you make yourself desolate? 17 Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be a simpleminded fool. Why should you adie before your time? 18 It is good that you seize one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who afears God comes forth with both of them.
19 aWisdom strengthens a wise man more than ten men with power 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 give your heart to all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your slave acursing you. 22 For your heart also knows 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 far away and aexceedingly deep. bWho can find it? 25 I aturned my heart to know, to explore, and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the wickedness of foolishness and the simpleminded folly of madness. 26 And I found more abitter than death the woman whose heart is bsnares and nets, whose hands are chains. cOne who is good before God will escape from her, but dthe sinner will be captured by her.
27 “See, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “adding one thing to another to find an explanation, 28 which my soul still seeks but has not found. I have found one man out of a thousand, but I have not found a awoman among all these. 29 See, I have found only this, that aGod made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”