Ecclesiastes or, the Preacher

 1 For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.

 2 All things come alike to all: there is one ^aevent to the ^brighteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that ^csweareth, as he that ^dfeareth an oath.

 3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the ^adead.

 4 ¶For to him that is joined to all the living there is ^ahope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

 5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

 6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

 7 ¶Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a ^amerry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.

 8 Let thy garments be always ^awhite; and let thy head lack no ointment.

 9 Live ^ajoyfully with the ^bwife whom thou ^clovest all the days of the life of thy ^dvanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy ^eportion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.

 10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy ^amight; for there is no work, nor device, nor ^bknowledge, nor wisdom, in the ^cgrave, whither thou goest.

 11 ¶I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the ^aswift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

 12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men ^asnared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

 13 ¶This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me:

 14 There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:

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

 16 Then said I, ^aWisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man’s ^bwisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.

 17 The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools.

 18 ^aWisdom is better than weapons of war: but one ^bsinner destroyeth much good.