|
Chapter 9 |
| 1 | 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. |
| 2 | 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. |
| 3
| 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. |
| 4 | For to him that is joined to all the living
there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. |
| 5 | 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. |
| 6 | 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.
|
| 7 | Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry
heart; for God now accepteth thy works. |
|
8 | Let thy garments be always
white; and let thy head lack no ointment. |
|
9 | 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. |
| 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. |
