The value of wisdom
1
Better [is] a name than good perfume, || And the day of death than the day of birth.
2
Better to go to a house of mourning, || Than to go to a house of banqueting, || For that is the end of all men, || And the living lays [it] to his heart.
3
Better [is] sorrow than laughter, || For by the sadness of the face the heart becomes better.
4
The heart of the wise [is] in a house of mourning, || And the heart of fools in a house of mirth.
5
Better to hear a rebuke of a wise man, || Than [for] a man to hear a song of fools,
6
For as the noise of thorns under the pot, || So [is] the laughter of a fool, even this [is] vanity.
7
Surely oppression makes the wise mad, || And a gift destroys the heart.
8
Better [is] the latter end of a thing than its beginning, || Better [is] the patient of spirit, than the haughty of spirit.
9
Do not be hasty in your spirit to be angry, || For anger in the bosom of fools rests.
10
Do not say, “What was it, || That the former days were better than these?” For you have not asked wisely of this.
11
Wisdom [is] good with an inheritance, || And an advantage [it is] to those beholding the sun.
12
For wisdom [is] a defense, money [is] a defense, || And the advantage of the knowledge of wisdom [is], || She revives her possessors.
13
See the work of God, || For who is able to make straight that which He made crooked?
14
In a day of prosperity be in gladness, || And in a day of calamity consider: God has also made this alongside of that, || To the intent that man does not find anything after him.
The limits of human wisdom
15
The whole I have considered in the days of my vanity. There is a righteous one perishing in his righteousness, and there is a wrongdoer prolonging [himself] in his wrong.
16
Do not be over-righteous, nor show yourself too wise, why are you desolate?
17
Do not do much wrong, neither be a fool, why do you die within your time?
18
[It is] good that you lay hold on this, and also, do not withdraw your hand from that, for whoever is fearing God goes out with them all.
19
The wisdom gives strength to a wise man, more than wealth the rulers who have been in a city.
20
Because there is not a righteous man on earth that does good and does not sin.
21
Also to all the words that they speak do not give your heart, that you do not hear your servant reviling you.
22
For many times also has your heart known that you yourself have also reviled others.
23
All this I have tried by wisdom; I have said, “I am wise,” and it [is] far from me.
24
Far off [is] that which has been, and deep, deep, who finds it?
25
I have turned around, also my heart, to know and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and reason, and to know the wrong of folly, and the madness of foolishness.
26
And I am finding more bitter than death, the woman whose heart [is] nets and snares, her hands [are] bands; the good before God escapes from her, but the sinner is captured by her.
27
See, this I have found, said the Preacher, one to one, to find out the reason
28
(that still my soul had sought, and I had not found), || One man, a teacher, I have found, and a woman among all these I have not found.
29
See, this alone I have found, that God made man upright, and they have sought out many inventions.
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