Ecclesiastes 9:7-12

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁷ Go, eat your bread with enjoyment and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has long ago approved what you do.^{(A) 8} Let your garments always be white; do not let oil be lacking on your head.^{(B) 9} Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun,^[a] because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.^{(C) 10} Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.^(D)

¹¹ Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful, but time and chance happen to them all.^{(E) 12} For no one can anticipate one’s time. Like fish taken in a cruel net or like birds caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them.^(F)