¹For I set all this to my heart, to make clear all this: that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. Both love and hatred, no man knows; everything is before them

²Everything is the same for everyone: one chance for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the evil, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice; as the good, so the sinner; the one who swears, just as the one who fears an oath

³This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: that one chance belongs to all; and also the heart of the children of man is full of evil, and madness is in their heart in their lives, and after that, to the dead

⁴For whoever is joined to all the living, there is hope; for a living dog is better than a lion that is dead

⁵For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward; for their remembrance is forgotten

⁶Both their love and their hatred and their jealousy have already perished, and they have no portion any more forever in all that is done under the sun

⁷Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a good heart; for God has already accepted your works

⁸At all times let your garments be white, and let oil on your head not be lacking

⁹See life with the wife whom you love, all the days of the life of your vapor, which he has given you under the sun, all the days of your vapor; for it is your portion in life and in your toil, in which you are a laborer under the sun

¹⁰Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your strength; for there is no work or reckoning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, where you are going

¹¹I turned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the mighty, and also not bread to the wise, and also not wealth to the understanding, and also not favor to those who know; for time and chance happen to all of them

¹²For also the man does not know his time; like fish that are caught in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are ensnared at an evil time, when it falls on them suddenly

¹³I also saw this as wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me

¹⁴There was a small city with few men in it, and a great king came against it, surrounded it, and built great siegeworks against it

¹⁵Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he delivered the city by his wisdom; yet no one remembered that poor man

¹⁶So I said, Wisdom is better than strength; yet the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heard

¹⁷The word of the wise is heard in quietness more than the cry of a ruler among fools

¹⁸Wisdom is better than the implements of war, but one sinner destroys much good