Ecclesiastes Chapter 9

¹ I’ve concluded that good, wise people and what they do are in God’s hands, but they don’t know if love or hate lies around the corner. ² It’s the same for everyone. The good and the bad share the same fate whether they’re ceremonially clean or not, whether they offer sacrifices or not. Good people are treated like sinners; people that take oaths are treated like ones that are afraid to. ³ It doesn’t seem right that there’s one destiny for everybody. Their hearts are perverse; their minds harbor insanity their whole life; afterward they go to the dead. ⁴ Where there’s life there’s hope; it's better to be a live dog than a dead lion. ⁵ The living do know they’ll die; the dead don’t know anything. They don’t have any future because they’re forgotten. ⁶ Their love, their hate, their zeal perish with them; they won’t play a part in anything under the sun.  

Eccl 9:1-6

⁷ So enjoy your bread and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, because God approves of it. ⁸ Wear good clothes and use plenty of oil on your head. ⁹ Enjoy life with the wife you love all the fleeting days God gives you. That’s the reward in life for your toil under the sun. ¹⁰ Whatever your hand finds to do, do it diligently; there’s no activity or planning or wisdom in Sheol where you’re going.

¹¹ Again, I saw that under the sun the swift don’t necessarily win the race, soldiers don’t win the battle, the wise don’t get the bread, the discerning aren’t wealthy, the capable don’t gain approval; time and chance interfere with everything. ¹² Besides, people don’t know what’s going to happen to them; they’re like fish in a seine or birds in a snare: they unexpectedly get caught by misfortune.

¹³ I’ve also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it impressed me. ¹⁴ There was a small city where few people lived. A powerful king came, surrounded it, and built big siege works against it. ¹⁵ But a poor man in the city delivered it by his wisdom; yet nobody remembered that poor wise man.

Eccl 9:7-15

      ¹⁶ So I said, “Wisdom is better than power.”

      People often look down on poor people’s wisdom

            and ignore what they say.

      ¹⁷ The words of the wise heard in quietness

            are better than the shouts of a ruler among fools.

      ¹⁸ Wisdom is better than weapons,

            but one sinner can destroy lots of good.                    

Eccl 9:16-18