| 1 | Better [is] a name than good perfume, And the day of death than the day of birth. |
| 2 | Better to go unto a house of mourning, Than to go unto a house of banqueting, For that is the end of all men, And the living layeth [it] unto his heart. |
| 3 | Better [is] sorrow than laughter, For by the sadness of the face the heart becometh better. |
| 4 | The heart of the wise [is] in a house of mourning, And the heart of fools in a house of mirth. |
| 5 | Better to hear a rebuke of a wise man, Than [for] a man to hear a song of fools, |
| 6 | For as the noise of thorns under the pot, So [is] the laughter of a fool, even this [is] vanity. |
| 7 | Surely oppression maketh the wise mad, And a gift destroyeth the heart. |
| 8 | Better [is] the latter end of a thing than its beginning, Better [is] the patient of spirit, than the haughty of spirit. |
| 9 | Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, For anger in the bosom of fools resteth. |
| 10 | Say not thou, 'What was it, That the former days were better than these?' For thou hast not asked wisely of this. |
| 11 | Wisdom [is] good with an inheritance, And an advantage [it is] to those beholding the sun. |
| 12 | For wisdom [is] a defense, money [is] a defence, And the advantage of the knowledge of wisdom [is], She reviveth her possessors. |
| 13 | See the work of God, For who is able to make straight that which He made crooked? |
| 14 | In a day of prosperity be in gladness, And in a day of evil consider. Also this over-against that hath God made, To the intent that man doth not find anything after him. |
| 15 | The whole I have considered in the days of my vanity. There is a righteous one perishing in his righteousness, and there is a wrong-doer prolonging [himself] in his wrong. |
| 16 | Be not over-righteous, nor show thyself too wise, why art thou desolate? |
| 17 | Do not much wrong, neither be thou a fool, why dost thou die within thy time? |
| 18 | [It is] good that thou dost lay hold on this, and also, from that withdrawest not thy hand, for whoso is fearing God goeth out with them all. |
| 19 | The wisdom giveth strength to a wise man, more than wealth the rulers who have been in a city. |
| 20 | Because there is not a righteous man on earth that doth good and sinneth not. |
| 21 | Also to all the words that they speak give not thy heart, that thou hear not thy servant reviling thee. |
| 22 | For many times also hath thy heart known that thou thyself also hast reviled others. |
| 23 | All this I have tried by wisdom; I have said, 'I am wise,' and it [is] far from me. |
| 24 | Far off [is] that which hath been, and deep, deep, who doth find it? |
| 25 | I have turned round, also my heart, to know and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and reason, and to know the wrong of folly, and of foolishness the madness. |
| 26 | And I am finding more bitter than death, the woman whose heart [is] nets and snares, her hands [are] bands; the good before God escapeth from her, but the sinner is captured by her. |
| 27 | See, this I have found, said the Preacher, one to one, to find out the reason |
| 28 | (that still my soul had sought, and I had not found), One man, a teacher, I have found, and a woman among all these I have not found. |
| 29 | See, this alone I have found, that God made man upright, and they—they have sought out many devices. |