For all
this I considered in my heart even to declare all
this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their
works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth
either love or hatred by all that is before them.
02 All things come alike to all: there is one
event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the
good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him
that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth
not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he
that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
03 This is an evil among all things that are done
under the sun, that there is one event unto 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.
04 For to him that is joined to all the living
there is hope: for a living dog is better than a
dead lion.
05 For the living know that they shall die: but
the dead know not any thing, neither have they
any more a reward; for the memory of them is
forgotten.
06 Also their love, and their hatred, and their
envy, is now perished; neither have they any more
a portion for ever in any thing that is done
under the sun.
07 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink
thy wine with a merry heart; for God now
accepteth thy works.
08 Let thy garments be always white; and let thy
head lack no ointment.
09 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest
all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he
hath given thee under the sun, all the days of
thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life,
and in thy labour which thou takest under the
sun.
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10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with
thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor
knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou
goest.
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 favour to
men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to
them all.
12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the
fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the
birds that are caught in the snare; so are the
sons of men snared in an evil time, when it
falleth suddenly upon them.
13 This wisdom have I seen also under the sun,
and it seemed great unto 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 said I, Wisdom is better than strength:
nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised,
and his words are not heard.
17 The words of wise men are heard in quiet more
than the cry of him that ruleth among fools.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one
sinner destroyeth much good.
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