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7 Go thou thy way then, eate thy bread with ioy, & drinke thy wine with a glad heart, for thy workes please god: 8 (9:7) Let thy garmentes be alwayes white, and let thy head lacke no oyntment. 9 (9:8) Use thy selfe to liue ioyfully with thy wife whom thou louest all the dayes of thy life whiche is but vayne, that God geueth thee vnder the sunne all the dayes of thy vanitie: for that is thy portion in this life of al thy labour and trauayle that thou takest vnder the sunne. 10 (9:9) Whatsoeuer thou takest in hande to do, that do with al thy power: for in the graue that thou goest vnto, there is neither worke, counsayle, knowledge, nor wysdome. 11 (9:10) So I turned me vnto other thinges vnder the sunne, & I sawe that in running it helpeth not to be swift, in battell it helpeth not to be strong, to feeding it helpeth not to be wyse, to riches it helpeth not to be a man of muche vnderstanding, to be had in fauour it helpeth not to be cunning: but that all lieth in tyme and fortune. 12 (9:11) For a man knoweth not his tyme: but like as the fishes are taken with the angle, and as the byrdes are caught with the snare: euen so are men taken in the perillous time, when it commeth sodaynly vpon them. 13 (9:12) This wysdome haue I seene also vnder the sunne, and me thought it a great thing: 14 (9:13) There was a litle citie and a few men within it: so there came a great kyng and besieged it, and made great bulwarkes against it. 15 (9:14) And in the citie there was founde a poore man, but he was wyse, whiche with his wysdome deliuered the citie, yet was there no body that had any respect to such a simple man. 16 (9:15) Then sayd I, wysdome is better then strength: Neuerthelesse, a simple mans wysdome is despised, and his wordes are not hearde. 17 (9:16) A wyse mans counsayle that is folowed in scilence, is farre aboue the crying of a captaine among fooles. 18 (9:17) For wysdome is better then harnesse: but one sinner alone destroyeth muche goodnesse. Ecclesiastes 9:7-18, Bishops' Bible of 1568. Public domain.
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