King James Version › Ecclesiastes › 7

Ecclesiastes

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1 A good name is bet­ter than pre­cious oint­ment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth. 2 It is bet­ter to go to the house of mourn­ing, than to go to the house of feast­ing: for that is the end of all men; and the liv­ing will lay it to his heart. 3 Sor­row is bet­ter than laugh­ter: for by the sad­ness of the coun­te­nance the heart is made bet­ter. 4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourn­ing; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. 5 It is bet­ter to hear the re­buke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. 6 For as the crack­ling of thorns un­der a pot, so is the laugh­ter of the fool: this also is van­i­ty. 7 Sure­ly op­pres­sion maketh a wise man mad; and a gift de­stroyeth the heart. 8 Bet­ter is the end of a thing than the be­gin­ning there­of: and the pa­tient in spir­it is bet­ter than the proud in spir­it. 9 Be not hasty in thy spir­it to be an­gry: for anger resteth in the bo­som of fools. 10 Say not thou, What is the cause that the for­mer days were bet­ter than these? for thou dost not en­quire wise­ly con­cern­ing this. 11 Wis­dom is good with an in­her­i­tance: and ­by it there is prof­it to them that see the sun. 12 For wis­dom is a de­fence, and mon­ey is a de­fence: but the ex­cel­len­cy of knowl­edge is, that wis­dom giveth life to them that have it. 13 Con­sid­er the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked? 14 In the day of pros­per­i­ty be joy­ful, but in the day of ad­ver­si­ty con­sid­er: God also hath set the one over against the oth­er, to the end that man should find noth­ing af­ter him. 15 All things have I seen in the days of my van­i­ty: there is a just man that per­isheth in his righ­teous­ness, and there is a wicked man that pro­longeth his life in his wicked­ness. 16 Be not righ­teous over much; nei­ther make thy­self over wise: why shouldest thou de­stroy thy­self? 17 Be not over much wicked, nei­ther be thou fool­ish: why shouldest thou die be­fore thy time? 18 It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this; yea, also from this with­draw not thine hand: for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all. 19 Wis­dom strength­eneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city. 20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sin­neth not. 21 Also take no heed unto all words that are spo­ken; lest thou hear thy ser­vant curse thee: 22 For of­ten­times also thine own heart knoweth that thou thy­self like­wise hast cursed oth­ers. 23 All this have I proved by wis­dom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me. 24 That which is far off, and ex­ceed­ing deep, who can find it out? 25 I ap­plied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wis­dom, and the rea­son of things, and to know the wicked­ness of fol­ly, even of fool­ish­ness and mad­ness: 26 And I find more bit­ter than death the wom­an, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall es­cape from her; but the sin­ner shall be tak­en by her. 27 Be­hold, this have I found, saith the preach­er, counting one by one, to find out the ac­count: 28 Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thou­sand have I found; but a wom­an among all those have I not found. 29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man up­right; but they have sought out many in­ven­tions.