The Value of Wisdom

1A good name is finer than good ointment,

and the day of one’s death than the day he was born.

2Better to go to a house of mourning

than to go to a house of feasting,

for this is the end of all men,

and the one living will give it to his heart.

3Better is sorrow than laughter,

for by the sadness of the face, the heart is made good.

4The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning,

and the heart of fools is in a house of gladness.

5Better to hear the rebuke of a wise one,

than hearing a song of fools.

6For like the sound of thorns under the pot,

so is the laughter of the fool;

and also this is vapor.

7Surely oppression drives a wise one to madness,

and a bribe destroys the heart.

8Better the end of a thing than its beginning;

better one long of spirit than one high of spirit.

9Do not hurry in your spirit to become angry,

for anger rests in the bosom of fools.

10Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?”

For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

11Wisdom is good, with an inheritance,

and profitable for those seeing the sun.

12For in the shadow of wisdom is as in the shadow of silver,

and the advantage of knowledge is

that wisdom keeps alive her owners.

13See the work of God,

for who is able to make straight what He has made crooked?

14In a day of prosperity, be in gladness,

and in a day of evil, see also:

This as well as this, God has made,

for the reason that man cannot find out

anything after him.

The Limits of Human Wisdom

15All I have seen in the days of my vapor:

There is a righteous one perishing in his righteousness,

and there is a wicked one living long in his wickedness.

16Do not be overly righteous, and not overly wise yourself—why should you be desolate? 17Do not be overly wicked, and do not be a fool—why should you die in what is not your time? 18It is good that you should take hold of this, and also not loosen your hand from this; for the one who fears God will go forth from them all.†

19Wisdom gives more strength to the wise one

than ten rulers who are in a city.

20For there is not a righteous man on the earth

who does good and does not sin.

21Also, for all words that they might speak, do not give your heart, that you may not hear your servant belittling you. 22For many times also your own heart has known that you also have belitted others.

23All this I have tested by wisdom; I have said, “I shall be wise,” and it was far from me. 24Far off is that which has been, and very deep—who can find it out?

25I also turned my heart to know, and to search out, and to seek wisdom and reason, and to know the evil of foolishness and the folly of madness. 26And I am finding more bitter than death the woman who, she is a snare and her heart is a net; her hands are bonds; The one who is good before the face of God escapes from her, and the one sinning will be captured by her.

27Behold, this I have found, says Qoheleth, one to one to find out the reason— 28that which my soul still has sought, and I have not found: One man from a thousand have I found, and a woman among all these I have not found. 29See, this alone I have found: That God made man upright, and they have sought out many schemes.