Ecclesiastes 9

1 For I thought about all this in my mind to understand about the righteous and wise people and their deeds. They are all in God's hands. No one knows whether love or hate will come to someone.

I have drawn all these things through my heart, so that I might carefully understand. There are just men as well as wise men, and their works are in the hand of God. And yet a man does not know so much as whether he is worthy of love or of hatred.

2 Everyone has the same fate. The same fate awaits righteous people and wicked, the good, the clean and the unclean, and the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As good people will die, so also will the sinner. As the one who swears will die, so also will the man who fears to make an oath.

But all things in the future remain uncertain, because all things happen equally to the just and to the impious, to the good and to the bad, to the pure and to the impure, to those who offer sacrifices and to those who despise sacrifices. As the good are, so also are sinners. As those who commit perjury are, so also are those who swear to the truth.

3 There is an evil fate for everything that is done under the sun, the same event happens to them all. The hearts of human beings are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live. So after that they go to the dead.

This is a very great burden among all things that are done under the sun: that the same things happen to everyone. And when the hearts of the sons of men are filled with malice and contempt in their lives, afterwards they shall be dragged down to hell. (questioned)

4 For anyone who is united to all the living, there is hope, just as a living dog is better than a dead lion.

There is no one who lives forever, or who even has confidence in this regard. A living dog is better than a dead lion.

5 For living people know they will die, but the dead do not know anything. They no longer have any reward because their memory is forgotten.

For the living know that they themselves will die, yet truly the dead know nothing anymore, nor do they have any recompense. For the memory of them is forgotten.

6 Their love, hatred, and envy have vanished long ago. They will never have a place again in anything done under the sun.

Likewise, love and hatred and envy have all perished together, nor have they any place in this age and in the work which is done under the sun.

7 Go your way, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of celebrating good works.

So then, go and eat your bread with rejoicing, and drink your wine with gladness. For your works are pleasing to God.

8 Let your clothes be always white and your head anointed with oil.

Let your garments be white at all times, and let not oil be absent from your head.

9 Live happily with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of uselessness, the days that God has given you under the sun during your days of uselessness. That is your reward in life for your work under the sun.

Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your uncertain life which have been given to you under the sun, during all the time of your vanity. For this is your portion in life and in your labor, with which you labor under the sun.

10 Whatever your hand finds to do, work at it with your strength, because there is no work or explanation or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, where you are going. (Sheol h7585)

Whatever your hand is able to do, do it earnestly. For neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge will exist in death, toward which you are hurrying. (Sheol h7585)

11 I have seen some interesting things under the sun: The race does not belong to swift people. The battle does not belong to strong people. Bread does not belong to wise people. Riches do not belong to people of understanding. Favor does not belong to people of knowledge. Instead, time and chance affect them all.

I turned myself toward another thing, and I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor wealth to the learned, nor grace to the skillful: but there is a time and an end for all these things.

12 Surely, no one knows when his time will come. As fish are caught in a deadly net, or birds are caught in a snare, the children of human beings are ensnared by evil times that suddenly fall upon them.

Man does not know his own end. But, just as fish are caught with a hook, and birds are captured with a snare, so are men seized in the evil time, when it will suddenly overwhelm them.

13 I have also seen wisdom under the sun in a way that seemed great to me.

This wisdom, likewise, I have seen under the sun, and I have examined it intensely.

14 There was a small city with only a few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it and built great siege ramps against it.

There was a small city, with a few men in it. There came against it a great king, who surrounded it, and built fortifications all around it, and the blockade was completed.

15 Now in the city was found a poor, wise man, who by his wisdom saved the city. Yet later, no one remembered that same poor man.

And there was found within it, a poor and wise man, and he freed the city through his wisdom, and nothing was recorded afterward of that poor man.

16 So I concluded, “Wisdom is better than strength, but the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.”

And so, I declared that wisdom is better than strength. But how is it, then, that the wisdom of the poor man is treated with contempt, and his words are not heeded?

17 The words of wise people spoken quietly are heard better than the shouts of any ruler among fools.

The words of the wise are heard in silence, more so than the outcry of a prince among the foolish.

18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner can ruin much good.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war. And whoever offends in one thing, shall lose many good things.