Ecclesiastes 7
Wisdom and Foolishness Contrasted
1 A agood name is better than good ▼
▼I.e., olive oil
oil, And the cday of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.
2 It is better to go to a house of mourning
Than to go to a house of feasting,
Because ▼
▼I.e., death
that is the eend of every person, And the living ▼
▼Lit gives
gtakes it to ▼▼Lit his heart
heart. 3 iSorrow is better than laughter,
For jwhen a face is sad a heart may be happy.
4 The ▼
▼Lit heart
mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, While the ▼
▼Lit heart
mind of fools is in the house of pleasure. 5 It is better to mlisten to the rebuke of a wise person
Than for one to listen to the song of fools.
6 For as the ▼
▼Lit voice
crackling of othorn bushes under a pot, So is the plaughter of the fool;
And this too is futility.
7 For qoppression makes a wise person look foolish,
And a rbribe ▼
▼Lit destroys
corrupts the heart. 8 The tend of a matter is better than its beginning;
uPatience of spirit is better than arrogance of spirit.
9 Do not be ▼
▼Lit hasty
weager in your spirit to be angry, For anger resides in the ▼
▼Lit chest
heart of fools. 10 Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.
11 Wisdom along with an inheritance is good,
And an yadvantage to those who see the sun.
12 For zwisdom is ▼
▼Lit in a shadow
protection just as money is ▼▼Lit in a shadow
protection, But the advantage of knowledge is that acwisdom keeps its possessors alive.
13 Consider the adwork of God,
For who is aeable to straighten what He has bent?
14 afOn the day of prosperity be happy,
But agon the day of adversity consider:
God has made the one as well as the other
So that a person will ahnot discover anything that will come after him. 15 I have seen everything during my ▼
▼Lit days
ajlifetime of futility; there is aka righteous person who perishes in his righteousness, and there is ala wicked person who prolongs his life in his wickedness. 16Do not be excessively amrighteous, and do not anbe overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself? 17Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be foolish. Why should you aodie ▼▼Lit when not your time
before your time? 18It is good that you grasp one thing while not ▼▼Lit resting your hand
letting go of the other; for one who arfears God comes out with ▼▼Lit all of them
both of them. 19 atWisdom strengthens a wise person more than ten rulers who are in a city. 20Indeed, authere is not a righteous person on earth who always does good and does not ever sin. 21Also, do not ▼▼Lit give your heart to
take seriously all the words which are spoken, so that you do not hear your servant awcursing you, 22for ▼▼Lit your heart knows
you know that even you have cursed others many times as well. 23 I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, “I will be wise,” aybut wisdom was far from me. 24What has been is remote and azvery ▼▼Lit deep
mysterious. bbWho can discover it? 25I ▼▼Lit turned about
bddirected my ▼▼Lit heart
mind to know and to investigate, and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of foolishness and the foolishness of insanity. 26And I discovered as more bfbitter than death the woman whose heart is bgsnares and nets, whose hands are chains. bhOne who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but bithe sinner will be captured by her. 27 “Behold, I have discovered this,” says the Preacher, “by adding one thing to another to find an explanation, 28which ▼▼Lit my soul still seeks
I am still seeking but have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a bkwoman among all these. 29Behold, I have found only this, that blGod made people upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”
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