1. For all this I gave to heart, even to explain all this, that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. Whether love or hatred, man does not know all that is before them.
2. All happens alike to all; one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him who sacrifices, and to him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who swears is as he that fears an oath.
3. This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event to all. Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they are alive, and after that they go to those who died.
4. For one who is chosen to be among 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 do not know anything; nor do they have any more a reward, for their memory is forgotten.
6. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy has now perished; nor do they any longer have a part forever in all that is done under the sun.
7. Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God now is pleased with your works.
8. Let your garments be white at every time; and let your head lack no ointment.
9. Look on life with the wife whom you love all the days of the life of your vanity, which He gave you under the sun, all the days of your vanity. For that is your share in this life, and in your labor which you as a laborer do under the sun.
10. All that your hand finds to do, do it with your strength. For there is no work, or planning, or knowledge, or wisdom, in Sheol, there where you go.
11. I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the mighty; nor even bread to the wise; nor even riches to the men of discernment; nor even favor to knowing men. For time and occurrence happen to them all.
12. For man also does not know his time. As the fish that are taken in the evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the trap, like them are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.
13. This wisdom I saw also under the sun, and it is great to me:
14. There was a little city, and few men in it. And a great king came against it, and besieged it, and built huge siege works against it.
15. And there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom saved the city. Yet no man remembered that poor man!
16. And I said, Wisdom is better than strength; but 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 one who rules among fools.
18. Wisdom is better than weapons of conflict; but one sinner destroys much good.