Ecclesiastes 7

Better the House of Mourning Than the House of Feasting

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The Day of Death and the House of Mourning

7:1A name is better than good oil, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.

7:2Better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of drinking, for this is the end of every human being, and the living will take it to heart.

7:3Anger is better than laughter, for through a troubled face the heart will become better.

7:4The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of gladness.

7:5Better to hear a wise person’s rebuke than to be someone listening to the song of fools,

7:6for like the sound of thorns beneath a cauldron, so is the laughter of fools. This too is futility.

7:7For extortion drives a wise person astray and destroys the heart of his vigor.

The End of Words Is Better Than Their Beginning

7:8The end of words is better than their beginning; a patient person is better than one high in spirit.

7:9Do not be hasty in your spirit to become angry, for anger will rest in the bosom of fools.

7:10Do not say, What happened that the former days were better than these? For it is not in wisdom that you ask about this.

7:11Wisdom is good with an inheritance, and an advantage to those who behold the sun.

7:12For wisdom in its shade is like the shade of silver, and the advantage of the knowledge of wisdom will give life to its possessor.

Consider God’s Works

7:13Consider God’s works, for who can put in order the one whom God has twisted?

7:14On a day of goodness, live in good; on a day of evil, consider: God has made this in accord with that concerning speech, so that human beings may find out nothing that comes after them.

Do Not Become Overly Righteous

7:15I have seen everything in my days of futility: a righteous person perishing in his righteousness, and an ungodly person remaining in his evil.

7:16Do not become overly righteous, and do not be excessively wise, lest you be confounded.

7:17Do not be greatly ungodly, and do not become harsh, lest you die before your time.

7:18It is good that you hold to this and also do not release your hand from that, for the one who fears God will come through them all.

7:19Wisdom will help the wise person more than ten rulers who are in the city,

7:20for there is no righteous person on earth who will do good and not sin.

7:21Also, do not set your heart upon every word people speak, so that you may not hear your slave cursing you,

7:22for very often he will wrong you, and many times he will hurt your heart, just as you too have cursed others.

The Search for Wisdom and a Reckoning

7:23All this I tested by wisdom. I said, I will be wise,

7:24but it moved far away from me, farther than it was; and depth is deep—who can find it?

7:25I turned, I and my heart, to know, examine and seek wisdom and a reckoning, and to know an ungodly person’s folly, harshness and delirium.

7:26I find more bitter than death the woman who is traps, whose heart is nets and whose hands are bonds. The one who is good before God will be rescued from her, but the sinner will be caught by her.

7:27Look, this I found, said Ecclesiastes, one thing alongside another, to find a reckoning,

7:28which my soul still sought but I did not find. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I did not find.

7:29Only look, this I found: God made humankind upright, but they sought many reasonings.

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.