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7. Wisdom

¹ A good name is better than fine perfume,
   and the day of death better than the day of birth.
² It is better to go to a house of mourning
   than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of everyone;
   the living should take this to heart.
³ Frustration is better than laughter,
   because a sad face is good for the heart.
⁴ The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
   but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
⁵ It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person
   than to listen to the song of fools.
⁶ Like the crackling of thorns under the pot,
   so is the laughter of fools.
   This too is meaningless.

⁷ Extortion turns a wise person into a fool,
and a bribe corrupts the heart.

    ⁸ The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
   and patience is better than pride.
⁹ Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,
   for anger resides in the lap of fools.

¹⁰ Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?”
For it is not wise to ask such questions.

    ¹¹ Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing
   and benefits those who see the sun.
¹² Wisdom is a shelter
   as money is a shelter,
but the advantage of knowledge is this:
   Wisdom preserves those who have it.

¹³ Consider what God has done:

   Who can straighten
   what he has made crooked?
¹⁴ When times are good, be happy;
   but when times are bad, consider this:
God has made the one
   as well as the other.
Therefore, no one can discover
   anything about their future.

¹⁵ In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:

   the righteous perishing in their righteousness,
   and the wicked living long in their wickedness.
¹⁶ Do not be overrighteous,
   neither be overwise—
   why destroy yourself?
¹⁷ Do not be overwicked,
   and do not be a fool—
   why die before your time?
¹⁸ It is good to grasp the one
   and not let go of the other.
   Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes. Or will follow them both

¹⁹ Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful
than ten rulers in a city.

²⁰ Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous,
no one who does what is right and never sins.

    ²¹ Do not pay attention to every word people say,
   or you may hear your servant cursing you—
²² for you know in your heart
   that many times you yourself have cursed others.

²³ All this I tested by wisdom and I said,

   “I am determined to be wise”—
   but this was beyond me.
²⁴ Whatever exists is far off and most profound—
   who can discover it?
²⁵ So I turned my mind to understand,
   to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things
and to understand the stupidity of wickedness
   and the madness of folly.

    ²⁶ I find more bitter than death
   the woman who is a snare,
whose heart is a trap
   and whose hands are chains.
The man who pleases God will escape her,
   but the sinner she will ensnare.

²⁷ “Look,” says the Teacher, Or the leader of the assembly “this is what I have discovered:

   “Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—
    ²⁸ while I was still searching
   but not finding—
I found one upright man among a thousand,
   but not one upright woman among them all.
²⁹ This only have I found:
   God created mankind upright,
   but they have gone in search of many schemes.”