Ecclesiastes 9

¹ For I took all this to heart and examined it all: that the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in God's hand. Whether love or hatred — people do not know; everything before them is vapor.

² It is the same for all: there is one fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the evil, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As with the good, so with the sinner; as with the one who swears an oath, so with the one who fears an oath.

³ This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same fate comes to all. Also, the hearts of people are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

⁴ But whoever is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

⁵ For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.

⁶ Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and they have no more portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.

⁷ Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a glad heart, for God has already approved what you do.

⁸ Always let your garments be white, and let your head not lack oil.

⁹ Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vapor-brief life that he has given you under the sun — all your vapor-brief days — for that is your portion in life and in your labor at which you labor under the sun.

¹⁰ Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, where you are going.

¹¹ Again 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 riches to the discerning, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to all of them.

¹² For a person does not know his time. Like fish caught in a treacherous net, and like birds caught in a snare, so the children of men are snared in an evil time, when it falls on them suddenly.

¹³ I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me:

¹⁴ There was a small city with few people in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it.

¹⁵ But there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

¹⁶ But I say that wisdom is better than might, though 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 shouting of a ruler among fools.

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