Axial Commons
Hebrew / JewishChristianity
A man to whom God hath given riches, and substance, and honour, and his soul wanteth nothing of all that he desireth: yet God doth not give him power to eat thereof, but a stranger shall eat it up. This is vanity and a great misery.
If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, and attain to a great age, and his soul make no use of the goods of his substance, and he be without burial: of this man I pronounce, that the untimely born is better than he.
For he came in vain, and goeth to darkness, and his name shall be wholly forgotten.
He hath not seen the sun, nor known the distance of good and evil:
Although he lived two thousand years, and hath not enjoyed good things: do not all make haste to one place?
All the labour of man is for his mouth, but his soul shall not be filled.
What hath the wise man more than the fool? and what the poor man, but to go thither, where there is life?
Better it is to see what thou mayst desire, than to desire that which thou canst not know. But this also is vanity, and presumption of spirit.
He that shall be, his name is already called: and it is known, that he is a man, and cannot contend in judgment with him that is stronger than himself.
There are many words that have much vanity in disputing.
What needeth a man to seek things that are above him, whereas he knoweth not what is profitable for him in his life, in all the days of his pilgrimage, and the time that passeth like a shadow? Or who can tell him what shall be after him under the sun?
A good name is better than precious ointments: and the day of death than the day of one's birth.
It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting: for in that we are put in mind of the end of all, and the living thinketh what is to come.
Anger is better than laughter: because by the sadness of the countenance the mind of the offender is corrected.
The heart of the wise is where there is mourning, and the heart of fools where there is mirth.
It is better to be rebuked by a wise man, than to be deceived by the flattery of fools.
For as the crackling of thorns burning under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool: now this also is vanity.
Oppression troubleth the wise, and shall destroy the strength of his heart.
Better is the end of a speech than the beginning. Better is the patient man than the presumptuous.
Be not quickly angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of a fool.
Say not: What thinkest thou is the cause that former times were better than they are now? for this manner of question is foolish.
Wisdom with riches is more profitable, and bringeth more advantage to them that see the sun.
For as wisdom is a defence, so money is a defence: but learning and wisdom excel in this, that they give life to him that possesseth them.
Consider the works of God, that no man can correct whom he hath despised.
In the good day enjoy good things, and beware beforehand of the evil day: for God hath made both the one and the other, that man may not find against him any just complaint.
These things also I saw in the days of my vanity: A just man perisheth in his justice, and a wicked man liveth a long time in his wickedness.
Be not over just: and be not more wise than is necessary, lest thou become stupid.
Be not overmuch wicked: and be not foolish, lest thou die before thy time.
It is good that thou shouldst hold up the just, yea and from him withdraw not thy hand: for he that feareth God, neglecteth nothing.
Wisdom hath strengthened the wise more than ten princes of the city.
For there is no just man upon earth, that doth good, and sinneth not.
But do not apply thy heart to all words that are spoken: lest perhaps thou hear thy servant reviling thee.
For thy conscience knoweth that thou also hast often spoken evil of others.
I have tried all things in wisdom. I have said: I will be wise: and it departed farther from me,
Much more than it was: it is a great depth, who shall find it out?
I have surveyed all things with my mind, to know, and consider, and seek out wisdom and reason: and to know the wickedness of the fool, and the error of the imprudent:
And I have found a woman more bitter than death, who is the hunter's snare, and her heart is a net, and her hands are bands. He that pleaseth God shall escape from her: but he that is a sinner, shall be caught by her.
Lo this have I found, said Ecclesiastes, weighing one thing after another, that I might find out the account,
Which yet my soul seeketh, and I have not found it. One man among a thousand I have found, a woman among them all I have not found.
Only this I have found, that God made man right, and he hath entangled himself with an infinity of questions. Who is as the wise man? and who hath known the resolution of the word?
The wisdom of a man shineth in his countenance, and the most mighty will change his face.
I observe the mouth of the king, and the commandments of the oath of God.
Be not hasty to depart from his face, and do not continue in an evil work: for he will do all that pleaseth him:
And his word is full of power: neither can any man say to him: Why dost thou so?
He that keepeth the commandment, shall find no evil. The heart of a wiser man understandeth time and answer.
There is a time and opportunity for every business, and great affliction for man:
Because he is ignorant of things past, and things to come he cannot know by any messenger.
It is not in man's power to stop the spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death, neither is he suffered to rest when war is at hand, neither shall wickedness save the wicked.
All these things I have considered, and applied my heart to all the works that are done under the sun. Sometimes one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
I saw the wicked buried: who also when they were yet living were in the holy place, and were praised in the city as men of just works: but this also is vanity.
For because sentence is not speedily pronounced against the evil, the children of men commit evils without any fear.
But though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and by patience be borne withal, I know from thence that it shall be well with them that fear God, who dread his face.
But let it not be well with the wicked, neither let his days be prolonged, but as a shadow let them pass away that fear not the face of the Lord.
There is also another vanity, which is done upon the earth. There are just men to whom evils happen, as though they had done the works of the wicked: and there are wicked men, who are as secure as though they had the deeds of the just: but this also I judge most vain.
Therefore I commended mirth, because there was no good for a man under the sun, but to eat, and drink, and be merry, and that he should take nothing else with him of his labour in the days of his life, which God hath given him under the sun.
And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to understand the distraction that is upon earth: for there are some that day and night take no sleep with their eyes.
And I understood that man can find no reason of all those works of God that are done under the sun: and the more he shall labour to seek, so much the less shall he find: yea, though the wise man shall say, that he knoweth it, he shall not be able to find it.
All these things have I considered in my heart, that I might carefully understand them: there are just men and wise men, and their works are in the hand of God: and yet man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love, or hatred:
But all things are kept uncertain for the time to come, because all things equally happen to the just and to the wicked, to the good and to the evil, to the clean and to the unclean, to him that offereth victims, and to him that despiseth sacrifices. As the good is, so also is the sinner: as the perjured, so he also that sweareth truth.
This is a very great evil among all things that are done under the sun, that the same things happen to all men: whereby also the hearts of the children of men are filled with evil, and with contempt while they live, and afterwards they shall be brought down to hell.
There is no man that liveth always, or that hopeth for this: a living dog is better than a dead lion.
For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing more, neither have they a reward any more: for the memory of them is forgotten.
Their love also, and their hatred, and their envy are all perished, neither have they any part in this world, and in the work that is done under the sun.
Go then, and eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with gladness: because thy works please God.
At all times let thy garments be white, and let not oil depart from thy head.
Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest, all the days of thy unsteady life, which are given to thee under the sun, all the time of thy vanity: for this is thy portion in life, and in thy labour wherewith thou labourest under the sun.
Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: for neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening.
I turned me to another thing, and I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the learned, nor favour to the skilful: but time and chance in all.
Man knoweth not his own end: but as fishes are taken with the hook, and as birds are caught with the snare, so men are taken in the evil time, when it shall suddenly come upon them.
This wisdom also I have seen under the sun, and it seemed to me to be very great:
A little city, and few men in it: there came against it a great king, and invested it, and built bulwarks round about it, and the siege was perfect.
Now there was found in it a man poor and wise, and he delivered the city by his wisdom, and no man afterward remembered that poor man.
And I said that wisdom is better than strength: how then is the wisdom of the poor man slighted, and his words not heard?
The words of the wise are heard in silence, more than the cry of a prince among fools.
Better is wisdom, than weapons of war: and he that shall offend in one, shall lose many good things.
Dying flies spoil the sweetness of the ointment. Wisdom and glory is more precious than a small and shortlived folly.
The heart of a wise man is in his right hand, and the heart of a fool is in his left hand.
Yea, and the fool when he walketh in the way, whereas he himself is a fool, esteemeth all men fools.
If the spirit of him that hath power, ascend upon thee, leave not thy place: because care will make the greatest sins to cease.
There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were by an error proceeding from the face of the prince:
A fool set in high dignity, and the rich sitting beneath.
I have seen servants upon horses: and princes walking on the ground as servants.
He that diggeth a pit, shall fall into it: and he that breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
He that removeth stones, shall be hurt by them: and he that cutteth trees, shall be wounded by them.
If the iron be blunt, and be not as before, but be made blunt, with much labour it shall be sharpened: and after industry shall follow wisdom.
If a serpent bite in silence, he is nothing better that backbiteth secretly.
The words of the mouth of a wise man are grace: but the lips of a fool shall throw him down headlong.
The beginning of his words is folly, and the end of his talk is a mischievous error.
A fool multiplieth words. A man cannot tell what hath been before him: and what shall be after him, who can tell him?
The labour of fools shall afflict them that know not how to go to the city.
Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and when the princes eat in the morning.
Blessed is the land, whose king is noble, and whose princes eat in due season for refreshment, and not for riotousness.
By slothfulness a building shall be brought down, and through the weakness of hands, the house shall drop through.
For laughter they make bread, and wine that the living may feast: and all things obey money.
Detract not the king, no not in thy thought; and speak not evil of the rich man in thy private chamber: because even the birds of the air will carry thy voice, and he that hath wings will tell what thou hast said.
Cast thy bread upon the running waters: for after a long time thou shalt find it again.
Give a portion to seven, and also to eight: for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.
If the clouds be full, they will pour out rain upon the earth. If the tree fall to the south, or to the north, in what place soever it shall fall, there shall it be.
He that observeth the wind, shall not sow: and he that considereth the clouds, shall never reap.
As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones are joined together in the womb of her that is with child: so thou knowest not the works of God, who is the maker of all.