“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 event to the
righteous, 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 sweareth, as [he] that
feareth 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 dead.”
“4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: 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 merry heart;
for God now accepteth thy works. 8 Let thy garments be always white; and
let thy head lack no ointment. 9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou
lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee
under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that [is] thy portion in
[this] life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. 10
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do [it] with thy might; for [there
is] no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave,
whither thou goest.”
“11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race [is] not to the
swift, 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 snared 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, Wisdom [is] better than strength: nevertheless the poor
man’s wisdom [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 Wisdom [is] better than weapons of war: but one sinner
destroyeth much good.” (Ecclesiastes 9:1-18 AV)