1 For all this I took to heart, even to search out all this: that the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of Elohim. No man knows whether love or hatred awaits him.
2 It is the same for all: One event to the righteous and to the wrong; to the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean; and to the one slaughtering and to the one not slaughtering. As is the good one, so is the sinner; the one swearing as the one fearing an oath.
3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: there is one event to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are filled with evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and then – to the dead!
4 But for him who is joined to all the living there is trust, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
5 For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know naught, nor do they have any more reward, for their remembrance is forgotten.
6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy have now perished; and they no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.
7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a glad heart; for Elohim has already approved your works.
8 Let your garments be white at all times, and let your head lack no oil.
9 See life with the wife whom you love all the days of your futile life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of futility. For that is your share in life, and in your toil which you have laboured under the sun.
10 All that your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.
11 I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the mighty, nor even bread to the wise, nor even riches to men of understanding, nor even favour to men of knowledge – for time and chance meets with them all.
12 For even man does not know his time. Like fish taken in an evil net, and like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it come down on them suddenly.
13 Also this I saw as wisdom under the sun, and it is great to me:
14 A little city, and few men in it, and a great sovereign came against it, and besieged it, and built huge siege-works against it.
15 And there was found in it a poor wise man, and by his wisdom he delivered the city, yet no one remembered that poor man.
16 And I said, “Wisdom is better than might. But the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heard.”
17 The words of the wise, spoken calmly, should be heard rather than the shout of a ruler of fools.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of conflict, but one sinner destroys much good.