Ecclesiastes 1-12

Complete Jewish Bible

1 The words of Kohelet the son of David, king in Yerushalayim:

¹² I, Kohelet, have been king over Isra’el in Yerushalayim. ¹³ I wisely applied myself to seek out and investigate everything done under heaven. What a bothersome task God has given humanity to keep us occupied! ¹⁴ I have seen all the activities that are done under the sun, and it’s all pointless, feeding on wind.

¹⁶ I said to myself, “Look, I have acquired much wisdom, more than anyone ruling Yerushalayim before me.” Yes, I experienced a great deal of wisdom and knowledge; ¹⁷ yet when I applied myself to understanding wisdom and knowledge, as well as stupidity and folly, I came to see that this too was merely feeding on wind.

2 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test myself with pleasure and enjoying good things”; but this too was pointless. ² Of laughter I said, “This is stupid,” and of pleasure, “What’s the use of it?”

³ I searched my mind for how to gratify my body with wine and, with my mind still guiding me with wisdom, how to pursue foolishness; my object was to find out what was the best thing for people to do during the short time they have under heaven to live. ⁴ I worked on a grand scale — I built myself palaces, planted myself vineyards, ⁵ and made myself gardens and parks; in them I planted all kinds of fruit trees. ⁶ I made myself pools from which to water the trees springing up in the forest. ⁷ I bought male and female slaves, and I had my home-born slaves as well. I also had growing herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, more than anyone before me in Yerushalayim. ⁸ I amassed silver and gold, the wealth of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, things that provide sensual delight, and a good many concubines. ⁹ So I grew great, surpassing all who preceded me in Yerushalayim; my wisdom, too, stayed with me. ¹⁰ I denied my eyes nothing they wanted. I withheld no pleasure from myself; for I took pleasure in all my work, and this was my reward for all my work. ¹¹ Then I looked at all that my hands had accomplished and at the work I had toiled at; and I saw that it was all meaningless and feeding on wind, and that there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

¹² So I decided to look more carefully at wisdom, stupidity and foolishness; for what can the man who succeeds the king do, except what has already been done? ¹³ I saw that wisdom is more useful than foolishness, just as light is more useful than darkness.

¹⁵ So I said to myself, “If the same thing happens to the fool as to me, then what did I gain by being wise?” and I thought to myself, “This too is pointless. ¹⁶ For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered, inasmuch as in the times to come, everything will long ago have been forgotten. The wise man, no less than the fool, must die.”

¹⁷ So I came to hate life, because the activities done under the sun were loathesome to me, since everything is meaningless and feeding on wind. ¹⁸ I hated all the things for which I had worked under the sun, because I saw that I would have to leave them to the man who will come after me. ¹⁹ Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the things I worked for and which demonstrated how wise I am under the sun. This too is pointless. ²⁰ Thus I came to despair over all the things I had worked for under the sun. ²¹ Here is a man whose work is done with wisdom, knowledge and skill; yet he has to leave it to someone who has put no work into it. This is not only pointless, but a great evil. ²² For what does a person get from all his efforts and ambitions permeating the work he does under the sun? ²³ His whole life is one of pain, and his work is full of stress; even at night his mind gets no rest. This too is pointless. ²⁴ So there is nothing better for a man to do than eat, drink and and let himself enjoy the good that results from his work. I also realized that this is from God’s hand. ²⁵ For who will eat and who will enjoy except me? ²⁶ For to the man who is good from [God’s] viewpoint he gives wisdom, knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of collecting and accumulating things to leave to him who is good from God’s viewpoint. This too is pointless and feeding on wind.

⁹ What does the worker gain from his efforts? ¹⁰ I have seen the task God has given humanity to keep us occupied. ¹¹ He has made everything suited to its time; also, he has given human beings an awareness of eternity; but in such a way that they can’t fully comprehend, from beginning to end, the things God does. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for them to do than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live. ¹³ Still, the fact that everyone can eat and drink and enjoy the good that results from all his work, is a gift of God. ¹⁴ I know that

¹⁷ I said to myself, “The righteous and the wicked God will judge, because there is a right time for every intention and for every action.”

¹⁸ Concerning people, I said to myself, “God is testing them, so that they will see that by themselves they are just animals. ¹⁹ After all, the same things that happen to people happen to animals, the very same thing — just as the one dies, so does the other. Yes, their breath is the same; so that humans are no better than animals; since nothing matters, anyway. ²⁰ They all go to the same place; they all come from dust, and they all return to dust. ²¹ Who knows if the spirit of a human being goes upward and the spirit of an animal goes downward into the earth?” ²² So I concluded that there is nothing better for a person to do than take joy in his activities, that that is his allotted portion; for who can enable him to see what will happen after him?

4 But I turned away and thought about all the kinds of oppression being done under the sun.

² So I considered the dead happier, because they were already dead, than the living, who must still live their lives; ³ but happier than either of them is the one who has not yet been born, because he has not yet seen the evil things that are done under the sun.

⁴ Next I realized that all effort and achievement stem from one person’s envy of another. This too is futility and feeding on wind.

⁷ Then I turned my attention to something else under the sun that is pointless: ⁸ the situation in which a solitary individual without a companion, with neither son nor brother, keeps on working endlessly but never has enough wealth. “For whom” [he should ask], “am I working so hard and denying myself pleasure?” This too is truly pointless, a sorry business.

⁹ Two are better than one, in that their cooperative efforts yield this advantage: ¹⁰ if one of them falls, the other will help his partner up — woe to him who is alone when he falls and has no one to help him up. ¹¹ Again, if two people sleep together, they keep each other warm; but how can one person be warm by himself? ¹² Moreover, an attacker may defeat someone who is alone, but two can resist him; and a three-stranded cord is not easily broken.

¹⁵ I observed that all who live and walk under the sun took the side of the youth mentioned first who would rule in place of the king, ¹⁶ and that no limit was set for the number of his subjects. Nevertheless, those who come afterwards will not regard him highly. This too is certainly pointless and feeding on wind.

^17 (5:1) Watch your step when you go to the house of God. Offering to listen is better than fools offering sacrifices, because they don’t discern whether or not they are doing evil.

^3 (4) If you make a vow to God, don’t delay in discharging it. For God takes no pleasure in fools, so discharge your vow! ^4 (5) Better not to make a vow than to make a vow and not discharge it. ^5 (6) Don’t let your words make you guilty, and don’t tell the temple official that you made the vow by mistake. Why give God reason to be angry at what you say and destroy what you have accomplished? ^6 (7) For [this is what happens when there are too] many dreams, aimless activities and words. Instead, just fear God!

^7 (8) If you see the poor oppressed, rights violated and justice perverted in the province, don’t be surprised; for a high official has one higher watching him, and there are others above them. ^8 (9) But the greatest advantage to the country is when the king makes himself a servant to the land.

This too is pointless.

^12 (13) Here is a gross evil which I have seen under the sun: the owner of wealth hoards it to his own hurt.

^15 (16) This too is a gross evil, that in every respect as he came, so will he go; thus what profit does he have after toiling to earn the wind? ^16 (17) All his life he eats in darkness, in frustration, in sickness and in anger.

^17 (18) This is what I have seen to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, drink and enjoy the good that results from all his work that he engages in under the sun for all the days of his life that God has given him, for this is his allotted portion. ^18 (19) Also, everyone to whom God has given riches and wealth, along with the power to enjoy it, so that he takes his allotted portion and finds pleasure in his work — this is a gift of God; ^19 (20) for he will not brood over the fact that his life is short, since God keeps him occupied with what will bring him joy.

6 I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on people: ² the case in which God gives someone riches, wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing that he wants; but God does not give him the power to enjoy them, and some stranger gets to enjoy them — this is meaningless, evil, sick.

³ Suppose a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that he has a long life, but he fails to enjoy himself; then, even if he were to [live indefinitely and therefore] never be buried, I say that it would be better to be born dead. ⁴ For the arrival of a stillborn baby is a futile thing, and its departure is in darkness; its name is [forgotten,] covered in darkness; ⁵ and although it has never seen or known the sun, it is more content than he is, ⁶ without enjoying himself, even if he were to live a thousand years twice over. Doesn’t everyone go to the same place?

²⁵ So I turned myself and my thoughts to know, search out and seek wisdom and the reasons behind things, also to know how foolish it is to be wicked and how stupid to act like a fool.

⁹ All this I have seen, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun when one person tyrannizes another. ¹⁰ Thus I saw the wicked buried; they had even come from the Holy Place. But those who had acted uprightly were forgotten in the city. This too is a futile thing; ¹¹ because the punishment decreed for an evil act is not promptly carried out; therefore people who plan to do evil are strengthened in their intentions. ¹² For a sinner can do evil a hundred times and still live a long life; although I know that in the end things will go well with those who fear God, because they fear him. ¹³ But things will not go well with the wicked; and, like a shadow, he will not prolong his days; because he doesn’t fear God.

¹⁴ There is something frustrating that occurs on earth, namely, that there are righteous people to whom things happen as if they were doing wicked deeds; and, again, there are wicked people to whom things happen as if they were doing righteous deeds. I say that this too is pointless.

¹⁵ So I recommend enjoyment — a person can do nothing better under the sun than eat, drink and enjoy himself; this is what should accompany him as he does his work for as long as God gives him to live under the sun.

¹⁶ When I applied myself to gain wisdom and to observe how people occupy themselves on earth, that people’s eyes don’t see sleep either by day or by night, ¹⁷ then, on looking over all of God’s work, I realized that it is impossible to grasp all the activity taking place under the sun; because even if a person works hard at searching it out, he won’t grasp it; and even if a wise person thinks he knows it, he still won’t be able to grasp it.

9 I applied myself to all of this, sifted through it and concluded that the righteous and the wise, along with their deeds, are in God’s hands — a person cannot know whether these people and deeds will be rewarded with love or with hatred; all options are open. ² Anything can happen to anyone; the same thing can happen to the righteous as to the wicked, to the good and clean and to the unclean, to someone who offers a sacrifice and to someone who doesn’t offer a sacrifice; it is the same for a good person as for a sinner, for someone who takes an oath rashly as for someone who fears to take an oath. ³ This is another evil among all those done under the sun, that the same events can occur to anyone. Truly, the human mind is full of evil; and as long as people live, folly is in their hearts; after which they go to be with the dead. ⁴ For as long as a person is linked with the living, there is hope — better to be a living dog than a dead lion! ⁵ For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; there is no longer any reward for them, because all memory of them is lost. ⁶ What they loved, what they hated and what they envied all disappeared long ago, and they no longer have a share in anything done under the sun.

⁹ Enjoy life with the wife you have loved throughout your meaningless life that he has given you under the sun, all the days of your futility; for that is your allotted portion in life and in your labor that you work at under the sun. ¹⁰ Whatever task comes your way to do, do it with all your strength; because in Sh’ol, where you will go, there is neither working nor planning, neither knowledge nor wisdom.

¹¹ Yet another thing I observed under the sun is that races aren’t won by the swift or battles by the strong, and that food doesn’t go to the wise or wealth to the intelligent or favor to the experts; rather, time and chance rule them all. ¹² For people don’t know when their time will come any more than fish taken in the fatal net or birds caught in a snare; similarly, people are snared at an unfortunate time, when suddenly it falls on them.

¹³ Here is something else I have seen as wisdom under the sun, and it seemed important to me: ¹⁴ there was a small town with few people in it; and a great king came to attack it; he surrounded it and built massive siege-works against it. ¹⁵ Now there was found in it a man who was poor but wise, and by his wisdom he saved the city; yet afterwards, nobody remembered that poor man. ¹⁶ So, although I say that wisdom is better than strength, nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised; nobody pays attention to what he says.

⁹ Not only was Kohelet wise, he also taught the people what he knew; also he weighed, researched and corrected many ethical sayings. ¹⁰ Kohelet worked to develop an attractive writing style, in which he expressed the truth straightforwardly. ¹¹ The sayings of the wise are as sharp as goads, and those given by leaders of assemblies are like well-fixed nails; [in this case,] they are presented by a single shepherd. ¹² In addition, my son, take heed: one can write many books — there’s no end to it; and one can study so much that it wearies the flesh.

¹³ Here is the final conclusion, now that you have heard everything: fear God, and keep his mitzvot; this is what being human is all about. ¹⁴ For God will bring to judgment everything we do, including every secret, whether good or bad.

[Here is the final conclusion, now that you have heard everything: fear God, and keep his mitzvot; this is what being human is all about.]