Ecclesiastes 7 - Modern English Version

Wise Proverbs

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

² It is better to go to a house of mourning for a funeral than to go to a house of feasting for a celebration; for this is the destiny of all humanity; and the living should consider this in their heart.

³ Grief is better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart considers the good.

⁴ The heart of those who are wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of those who are foolish is in the house of feasting.

⁵ It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to listen to the song of fools.

⁶ For like the crackling sound of thorns under a pot, so is the mocking laughter of fools. This also is vanity.

⁷ Surely oppression brings confusion to the wise person, and a bribe corrupts a person’s heart.

⁸ The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and the patient in spirit than the haughty in spirit.

⁹ Do not be quick in your spirit to be angry, for anger settles in the bosom of fools.

¹⁰ Do not say, “Why were the earlier days better than these days?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

¹¹ Wisdom is good as an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun.

¹² For the protective shadow of wisdom is like the protective shadow of silver, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of the one who possesses it.

¹³ Consider the work of God: Who can make straight what He made crooked?

¹⁴ In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that people may not find out anything that comes after them.

Riddles of Life

¹⁵ I have seen everything in my vain life: There is the righteous person who dies in his righteousness; and there is the wicked person who prolongs his life in his wickedness.

¹⁶ Do not be excessively righteous, and do not be extremely wise. Why ruin yourself?

¹⁷ Do not be overly wicked, and do not be a fool. Why die before your time?

¹⁸ It is good that you take hold of these two sayings, and from these warnings, remove not your hand; for the one who fears God will follow them both.

¹⁹ Wisdom gives the wise person more strength than ten rulers who are in the city.

²⁰ Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who only does good and refrains from sin.

²¹ Moreover, do not take to heart everything that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you.

²² Your heart knows that many times you yourself have spoken a curse against others.

²³ All these matters I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but wisdom has eluded me.

²⁴ That which exists is far off and so deep that it is incomprehensible. Who can discover it?

²⁵ And I turned my heart to know and seek and search out wisdom in the scheme of things and to know the wickedness of folly, and that foolishness is madness.

²⁶ And I find more bitter than death a woman whose heart is like snares and nets, whose hands are like prison cells. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is captured by her.

²⁷ “This is what I have observed,” says Qoheleth, “while adding one thing to another to understand the scheme of things,

²⁸ which my soul has continued to seek out, but I have not come to find it. I have found only one upright man in a thousand, but a woman among all of these I have not discovered.

²⁹ Observe, this thing alone I have discovered, that God made people upright, but they have gone after many schemes.”