1For all these things I have put into my heart, and my heart saw all this: that the righteous ones and the wise and their works are in the hand of God; also a son of man does not know love or hatred; everything that is before him is futility

2All alike happens to all; the same thing to the righteous ones and to the wicked, to the good and to the evil, to the pure and to the defiled, to the sacrificer and to the non- sacrificer, like the good the sinner is also, like the oath taker also is the one who fears oaths 3This evil is in all whatever is done under the sun, because one thing happens to them all, and also the heart of man is full of evil and the evil wandering in their heart, and in their lives, and their end is with the dead 4Everyone who shall be joined to All Life has trust, because a living dog is better than a dead lion 5Because the living know that they are dying, and the dead do not know a thing, and there is no more reward for them, because their memory is forgotten 6Also their love and their hatred and also their envy is now destroyed, and there is no more portion for them for eternity in all whatever is done under the sun

7Come, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a good heart, because God is pleased with your works! 8Always let your garments be white and let not your head lack oil 9And see life with the wife whom you have loved all the days of the life of your futility, because she is your lot in life and in your labor that you labor under the sun

10All that your hand finds to do, do in your power, for there is no work or reasoning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, because you are going there

11I turned and I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift , neither to a mighty man the battle, neither to the wise bread and not to the learned riches, and not to the intelligent glory, because time and mishap happens to them all 12For a son of man does not know his time, like fish that are caught in an evil net; like the fowl that are taken in a snare, so are the children of men taken in an evil time when it will fall upon them from the stillness

13This wisdom also I have seen under the sun, and it is great to me 14There was a small city and a few children of men in it, and a great King came to it and he surrounded it and he built bulwarks against it 15And a poor wise man was found in it and that poor man delivered the city by his wisdom, and no person remembered that poor man 16And I said in my heart: "Wisdom is better than might, and the wisdom of the poor is despised and his statements are not heeded 17Words of the wise in quiet are heeded more so than the shout of a prince who is a fool 18Better is wisdom than instruments of war, and one sin destroys many good things