< Ecclesiastes 9 >
1 For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God. No man understands, either love or hatred. All is before them.
2 All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous man and to the wicked man, to the good man, and to the clean man, and to the unclean man, to him who sacrifices and to him who does not sacrifice, as is the good man, so is the sinner, and he who swears, as he who fears an oath.
3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event to all. Yea also, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
4 Because to him who is joined with all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
5 For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything, nor have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.
6 As well their love, as their hatred and their envy, has perished long ago, nor have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.
7 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God has already accepted thy works.
8 Let thy garments be always white, and let not thy head lack oil.
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou love all the days of thy life of vanity, which he has given thee under the sun, all thy days of vanity. For that is thy portion in life, and in thy labor in which thou labor under the sun.
10 Whatever thy hand finds to do, do with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where thou go. (Sheol )
11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill, but time and chance happens to them all.
12 For man also does not know his time. As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falls suddenly upon them.
13 I have also seen wisdom under the sun this way, and it seemed great to me:
14 There was a little city, and few men within it. And there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it.
15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man. And he by his wisdom delivered the city, yet no man remembered that same poor man.
16 Then I said, Wisdom is better than strength. Nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
17 The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the cry of him who rules among fools.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
