Ecclesiastes 7

Ecclesiastes 7 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Value of Practical Wisdom

7 A good name is better than precious ointment,
And the day of death than the day of one’s birth;
² 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 take it to heart.
^3 [a]Sorrow is better than laughter,
For by a sad countenance the heart is made ^[b]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 ^[c]hear the rebuke of the wise
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
⁶ For like the ^[d]crackling of thorns under a pot,
So is the laughter of the fool.
This also is vanity.
⁷ Surely oppression destroys a wise man’s reason,
And a bribe ^[e]debases the heart.

⁸ The end of a thing is better than its beginning;
The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
⁹ Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry,
For anger rests in the bosom of fools.
¹⁰ Do not say,
“Why were the former days better than these?”
For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.

¹¹ Wisdom is good with an inheritance,
And profitable to those who see the sun.
¹² For wisdom is ^[f]a defense as money is a defense,
But the ^[g]excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it.

¹³ Consider the work of God;
For who can make straight what He has made crooked?
¹⁴ In the day of prosperity be joyful,
But in the day of adversity consider:
Surely God has appointed the one ^[h]as well as the other,
So that man can find out nothing that will come after him.

¹⁵ I have seen everything in my days of vanity:

There is a just man who perishes in his righteousness,
And there is a wicked man who prolongs life in his wickedness.

¹⁶ Do not be overly righteous,
Nor be overly wise:
Why should you destroy yourself?
¹⁷ Do not be overly wicked,
Nor be foolish:
Why should you die before your time?
¹⁸ It is good that you grasp this,
And also not remove your hand from the other;
For he who fears God will ^[i]escape them all.

¹⁹ Wisdom strengthens the wise
More than ten rulers of the city.

²⁰ For there is not a just man on earth who does good
And does not sin.

²¹ Also do not take to heart everything people say,
Lest you hear your servant cursing you.
²² For many times, also, your own heart has known
That even you have cursed others.

²³ All this I have ^[j]proved by wisdom.
I said, “I will be wise”;
But it was far from me.
²⁴ As for that which is far off and exceedingly deep,
Who can find it out?
²⁵ I applied my heart to know,
To search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things,
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,
Whose hands are fetters.
^[k]He who pleases God shall escape from her,
But the sinner shall be trapped by her.

²⁷ “Here is what I have found,” says the Preacher,
“Adding one thing to the other to find out the reason,
²⁸ Which my soul still seeks but I cannot find:
One man among a thousand I have found,
But a woman among all these I have not found.
²⁹ Truly, this only I have found:
That God made man upright,
But they have sought out many schemes.”