12Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, I find no pleasure in them- 2before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after...
11Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. 2Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. 3If clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth. Whether a tre...
10As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. 2The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. 3Even as he walks along the road, the fool lacks sense and shows everyone how...
9So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands, but no man knows whether love or hate awaits him. 2All share a common destiny-the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean...
8Who is like the wise man? Who knows the explanation of things? Wisdom brightens a man's face and changes its hard appearance. 2Obey the king's command, I say, because you took an oath before God. 3Do not be in a hurry to leave the king's presence. D...
7A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth. 2It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart. 3S...
6I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on men: 2God gives a man wealth, possessions and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them instead. This is...
5Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. 2Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is...
4Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed- and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors- and they have no comforter. 2And I declared that the dead, who ha...
3There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 2a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4a time to weep an...
2I thought in my heart, Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good. But that also proved to be meaningless. 2Laughter, I said, is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish? 3I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing foll...
1The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: 2Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher. Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. 3What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? 4Generations come and ge...
