-
7:1 A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death, than the day of birth. 7:2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for this is the end of everyone, and the living will lay it to heart. 7:3 Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad. 7:4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. 7:5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. 7:6 For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools; this also is vanity. 7:7 Surely oppression makes the wise foolish, and a bribe corrupts the heart. 7:8 Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; the patient in spirit are better than the proud in spirit. 7:9 Do not be quick to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools. 7:10 Do not say, "Why were the former days better than these?" For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. 7:11 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. 7:12 For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to the one who possesses it. 7:13 Consider the work of God; who can make straight what he has made crooked? 7:14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other, so that mortals may not find out anything that will come after them. 7:15 In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evildoing. 7:16 Do not be too righteous, and do not act too wise; why should you destroy yourself? 7:17 Do not be too wicked, and do not be a fool; why should you die before your time? 7:18 It is good that you should take hold of the one, without letting go of the other; for the one who fears God shall succeed with both. 7:19 Wisdom gives strength to the wise more than ten rulers that are in a city. 7:20 Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning. 7:21 Do not give heed to everything that people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you; 7:22 your heart knows that many times you have yourself cursed others. 7:23 All this I have tested by wisdom; I said, "I will be wise," but it was far from me. 7:24 That which is, is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out? 7:25 I turned my mind to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the sum of things, and to know that wickedness is folly and that foolishness is madness. 7:26 I found more bitter than death the woman who is a trap, whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters; one who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. 7:27 See, this is what I found, says the Teacher, adding one thing to another to find the sum, 7:28 which my mind has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. 7:29 See, this alone I found, that God made human beings straightforward, but they have devised many schemes.