1A good name is better than good ointment, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.
2It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of every person, and the living should take it to heart.
3Vexation is better than laughter, for by a sad face the heart is made well.
4The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of joy.
5It is better to hear the rebuke of a wise man than for a man to hear the song of fools.
6For like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool; and this too is vapor.
7Surely oppression makes the wise man mad, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
8The end of a matter is better than its beginning; the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
9Do not be hasty in your spirit to be vexed, for vexation rests in the bosom of fools.
10Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not out of wisdom that you ask about this.
11Wisdom is good with an inheritance, and an advantage to those who see the sun.
12For wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor.
13Consider the work of God; for who can straighten what he has made crooked?
14In the day of prosperity be in good spirits, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may find out nothing of what comes after him.
15I have seen everything in my vaporous days: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evil.
16Do not be excessively righteous, and do not make yourself overly wise—why should you destroy yourself?
17Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be a fool—why should you die before your time?
18It is good that you grasp the one and also not let go of the other, for the one who fears God will come out with both of them.
19Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in the city.
20For there is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin.
21Also, do not give heart to all the words that people speak, so that you do not hear your servant cursing you.
22For your heart also knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.
23All this I tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me.
24What has been is far off, and deep, deep—who can find it out?
25I turned, I and my heart, to know and to explore and to seek wisdom and the sum of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness of madness.
26And I find more bitter than death the woman who is snares and nets, whose heart is a trap, whose hands are fetters. The one who is good before God escapes from her, but the sinner is caught by her.
27See, this I found, says Qohelet, adding one to one to find the sum,
28which my soul still sought, but I did not find: one man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I did not find.
29See, this alone I found: that God made humankind upright, but they have sought out many schemes.
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