Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) 9

¹ For I have, reflected on all this and come to understand that the virtuous and the wise with all they do are in the hand of God. Man does not know what love is, or hate, and both of these in his eyes

² are vanity. Just as one fate comes to all, to virtuous as to wicked, to clean and unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice, so it is with the good man and the sinner, with him who takes an oath and him who shrinks from it.

³ This is the evil that inheres in all that is done under the sun: that one fate comes to all; further, that the hearts of men should be full of malice; that they should practise

⁴ such extravagances towards the living in their lifetime and the dead thereafter. For anyone who is linked with all that live still has some hope, a live dog being s better than a dead lion.

⁵ The living know at least that they will die, the dead know nothing; no more reward for them; their memory has passed out of mind.

⁶ Their loves, their hates, their jealousies, these all have perished, nor will they ever again take part in whatever is done under the sun.

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

⁸ Wear white all the time, do not stint your head of oil.

⁹ Spend your life with the woman you love, through all the fleeting days of the life that God has given you under the sun; for this is the lot assigned to you in life and in the efforts you exert under the sun.

¹⁰ Whatever work you propose to do, do it while you can, for there is neither achievement, nor planning, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol where you are going.

¹¹ I see this too under the sun: the race does not go to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; there is no bread for the wise, wealth for the intelligent, nor favour for the learned; all are subject to time and mischance.

¹² Man does not know his hour; like fish caught in the treacherous net, like birds taken in the snare, so is man overtaken by misfortune suddenly falling on him.

¹³ I observe another evil under the sun, to me a grave one.

¹⁴ There was a small town, with only a few inhabitants; a mighty king marched against it, laid siege to it and built great siege-works round it.

¹⁵ But a poverty-stricken sage confronted him and by his wisdom saved the town. No one remembered this poor man afterwards.

¹⁶ Now I say: wisdom is better than strength, but a poor man’s wisdom is never valued and his words are disregarded.

¹⁷ The gentle words of the wise are heard above the shouts of a king of fools.

¹⁸ Better wisdom than warlike weapons, but one mistake undoes a deal of good.