Ecclesiastes or Preacher 07 The Advantages of Suffering, Patience, and Moderation

 Ecclesiastes or Preacher 07

The Advantages of Suffering, Patience, and Moderation

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

2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for there is seen the end of all men; and the living take it to heart.

3 Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better.

4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

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

6 For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool; this also is vanity.

7 Surely oppression makes even a wise man mad, and a bribe corrupts the heart. 

8 The end of a thing is better than its beginning; he who is slow to anger is better than he who is proud in heart.

9 Do not be hasty in your spirit to anger, for anger lurks in the bosom of fools.

10 Never say, "Why were the former days better than these?" For you would never ask this wisely.

11 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance, and those who see the sun profit from it.

12 For wisdom serves as a shadow, as money serves as a shadow; but the excellence of wisdom is that it gives life to its possessor.

13 Consider the work of God; for who can straighten what he has made crooked?

14 In the day of prosperity enjoy good, but in the day of adversity consider; for God has also made this contrary to that, so that man should not find anything that should come after him.

15 All this I saw in the days of my vanity; There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his days in his wickedness.

16 Do not be overly righteous, nor overly wise: why would you destroy yourself?

17 Do not be overly wicked, nor be foolish: why would you die before your time?

18 It is good that you hold fast this, and do not withdraw your hand from it, for whoever fears God will escape all this.

19 Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten rulers in a city.

20 For there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

21 Do not take to heart every word that is spoken, lest you hear that your servant curses you.

22 For your heart has also often confessed that you have cursed others. 

23 All this I inquired of with wisdom; and I said, "I will acquire wisdom," but it was still far from me.

24 What was once is far off, and deep; who can find it?

25 I turned again, and set my heart to know, and to inquire, and to seek wisdom and reason, and to know the folly of wickedness and the madness of madness.

26 And I found something more bitter than death, the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are bands: whoever is good before God will escape her, but the sinner will be taken by her.

27 Behold, this I have found, says the preacher, weighing one thing with another to find the cause;

28 My soul still seeks the cause, but I have not found it; a man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found. 

29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright: but they have sought out many inventions.