Ecclesiastes
7
- A good name is better than fine perfume,
and the day of death better than the day of birth.
- It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man;
the living should take this to heart.
- Sorrow is better than laughter, because
a sad face is good for the heart.
- The heart of the wise is in the house of
mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
- It is better to heed a wise man's rebuke
than to listen to the song of fools.
- Like the crackling of thorns under the pot,
so is the laughter of fools. This too is meaningless.
- Extortion turns a wise man into a fool,
and a bribe corrupts the heart.
- The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
and patience is better than pride.
- Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,
for anger resides in the lap of fools.
- Do not say, "Why were the old days
better than these?" For it is not wise to ask such questions.
- Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing
and benefits those who see the sun.
- Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter,
but the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom preserves the life of
its possessor.
- Consider what God has done: Who can straighten
what he has made crooked ?
- When times are good, be happy; but when
times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore,
a man cannot discover anything about his future.
- In this meaningless life of mine I have
seen both of these: a righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a
wicked man living long in his wickedness.
- Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise
-- why destroy yourself ?
- Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool--why
die before your time ?
- It is good to grasp the one and not let
go of the other. The man who fears God will avoid all extremes.
- Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful
than ten rulers in a city.
- There is not a righteous man on earth who
does what is right and never sins.
- Do not pay attention to every word people
say, or you may hear your servant cursing you --
- for you know in your heart that many times
you yourself have cursed others.
- All this I tested by wisdom and I said,
"I am determined to be wise" -- but this was beyond me.
- Whatever wisdom may be, it is far off and
most profound--who can discover it ?
- So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate
and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity
of wickedness and the madness of folly.
- I find more bitter than death the woman
who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man
who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare.
- "Look," says the Teacher, "this
is what I have discovered: "Adding one thing to another to discover the
scheme of things --
- while I was still searching but not finding--I
found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them
all.
- This only have I found: God made mankind
upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes."
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