King James Version › Ecclesiastes › 9

Ecclesiastes

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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.