1 For I took all this to heart and examined it all: that the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in God's hand. Whether it will be love or hatred, man does not know; all lies ahead of them.
2 Everything is alike for everyone: one fate befalls the righteous and the wicked, the good, the clean and the unclean, the one who offers sacrifice and the one who does not. As is the good man, so is the sinner; as is the one who takes an oath, so is the one who is afraid to swear.
3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one fate befalls them all. Moreover, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and afterward they go to the dead.
4 But whoever is joined with all the living has hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.
6 Their love, their hatred and their jealousy have long since perished, and never again will they have a share in anything that is done under the sun.
7 Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
8 Let your clothes be white at all times, and let your head never lack oil.
9 Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your life of vanity that he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your lot in life and in the labor you labor at under the sun.
10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or reckoning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, the place you are going.
11 Once more I saw under the sun that the race does not go to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor wealth to the intelligent, nor favor to the learned; for time and chance come to them all.
12 For man does not know his time either. Like fish caught in a cruel net, and like birds seized in a trap, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time, when it falls on them without warning.
13 I also saw this example of wisdom under the sun, and it impressed me greatly:
14 There was a little city with only a few men in it, and a mighty king came against it, besieged it and built great siege works against it.
15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he saved the city by his wisdom; yet nobody remembered that poor man.
16 So I said, "Wisdom is better than strength." Yet the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words go unheeded.
17 The quiet words of the wise are better heeded than the shouting of a ruler among fools.
18 Wisdom is better than the weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy a great deal of good.