Death Comes to Good and Bad

1Indeed, all this I gave to my heart, in order to examine all this, that the righteous and the wise and their work are in the hand of God. Even love, even hatred—man does not know all that is before their faces.

2All is as for all: One event is to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the bad,† and to the clean and to the unclean, and to the one sacrificing and to the one who is not sacrificing; as is the good one, so is the sinner, the one swearing an oath as the one refusing an oath.

3This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: That one event is to all, and also that the heart of the sons of man is full of evil; and madness is in their hearts while they live, and afterward to the dead.

4For whoever that is joined to all the living, there is hope, for a living dog is better than a lion that is dead; 5for the living know that they will die, and the dead cannot know anything, and there is not anymore for them a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6Also their love and their hatred and their jealousy already have perished, and there is not unto them anymore a portion forever in all that is done under the sun.

Enjoy Your Portion in This Life

7Go, eat your bread with gladness, and drink your wine with a good heart, for already God has accepted your works.

8At every time, let your garments be white,

and let oil not be lacking upon your head.

9See life with a wife whom you have loved, all the days of the life of your vapor, which He has given to you under the sun—all your days of vapor—for that is your portion in this life, and in the toil by which you toil under the sun. 10All that your hand finds to do, with your strength you must do it, for there is no work or plan or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, there where you are going.

11I returned and saw under the sun how the race is not to the swift, and the battle not to the strong, and bread not to the wise, and wealth not to the discerning, and favor not to the skillful. For time and chance will happen to them all. 12For even the man does not know his time; like the fish taken in a cruel net, and like the birds that are grabbed by the snare, so for them: The sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it falls upon them suddenly.

Wisdom Is Better than Strength

13This also I have seen as wisdom under the sun, and it was great to me: 14A city was small, and few men in it; and a great king came against it, and he besieged it and built great siege ramps against it.

15And there was found in it a poor wise man, and he delivered the city by his wisdom. And mankind has not remembered that poor man. 16And I said, “Better is wisdom than might, and the wisdom of the poor one is despised, and his words are not heard.”

17The words of the wise are heeded in quiet

over the shout of a ruler among fools.

18Better wisdom than weapons of war,

and one sinner can destroy much good.