For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works,arein the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatredbyallthat isbefore them.
Allthings comealike to all:there isone 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: asisthe good, soisthe sinner;andhe that sweareth, ashethat feareth an oath.
Thisisan evil among allthingsthat are done under the sun, thatthere isone event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madnessisin their heart while they live, and after thatthey goto the dead.
For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
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.
Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in anythingthat is done under the sun.
Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.
Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.
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 thatisthy portion inthislife, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, doitwith thy might; forthere isno work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the raceisnot 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.
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; soarethe sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.
This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and itseemedgreat unto me:
There wasa little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:
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.
Then said I, Wisdomisbetter than strength: nevertheless the poor man’s wisdomisdespised, and his words are not heard.
The words of wisemen areheard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools.
Wisdomisbetter than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.