Historical
Chapter 5
1 [a]Be not hasty in your utterance and let not your heart be quick to utter a promise in God’s presence. God is in heaven and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few.(A)
2 As dreams come along with many cares,
so a fool’s voice along with a multitude of words.
3 (B)When you make a vow to God, delay not its fulfillment. For God has no pleasure in fools; fulfill what you have vowed. 4 It is better not to make a vow than make it and not fulfill it. 5 Let not your utterances make you guilty, and say not before his representative, “It was a mistake.” Why should God be angered by your words and destroy the works of your hands? 6 (C)Despite many dreams, futilities, and a multitude of words, fear God!
Gain and Loss of Goods. 7 (D)If you see oppression of the poor, and violation of rights and justice in the realm, do not be astonished by the fact, for the high official has another higher than he watching him and above these are others higher still—. 8 But profitable for a land in such circumstances is a king concerned about cultivation.[b]
9 (E)The covetous are never satisfied with money, nor lovers of wealth with their gain; so this too is vanity. 10 Where there are great riches, there are also many to devour them. Of what use are they to the owner except as a feast for the eyes alone? 11 Sleep is sweet to the laborer, whether there is little or much to eat; but the abundance of the rich allows them no sleep.
12 This is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches hoarded by their owners to their own hurt. 13 Should the riches be lost through some misfortune, they may have offspring when they have no means. 14 (F)As they came forth from their mother’s womb, so again shall they return, naked as they came, having nothing from their toil to bring with them. 15 This too is a grievous evil, that they go just as they came. What then does it profit them to toil for the wind? 16 All their days they eat in gloom with great vexation, sickness and resentment.
17 (G)Here is what I see as good: It is appropriate to eat and drink and prosper from all the toil one toils at under the sun during the limited days of life God gives us; for this is our lot. 18 Those to whom God gives riches and property, and grants power to partake of them, so that they receive their lot and find joy in the fruits of their toil: This is a gift from God. 19 For they will hardly dwell on the shortness of life, because God lets them busy themselves with the joy of their heart.[c]
Chapter 6
Limited Worth of Enjoyment. 1 There is another evil I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily upon humankind: 2 (H)There is one to whom God gives riches and property and honor, and who lacks nothing the heart could desire; yet God does not grant the power to partake of them, but a stranger devours them. This is vanity and a dire plague. 3 Should one have a hundred children and live many years, no matter to what great age, still if one has not the full benefit of those goods, I proclaim that the child born dead, even if left unburied, is more fortunate.[d] 4 (I)Though it came in vain and goes into darkness and its name is enveloped in darkness, 5 though it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet the dead child has more peace. 6 Should such a one live twice a thousand years and not enjoy those goods, do not both go to the same place?[e]
7 All human toil is for the mouth,[f] yet the appetite is never satisfied. 8 What profit have the wise compared to fools, or what profit have the lowly in knowing how to conduct themselves in life? 9 “What the eyes see is better than what the desires wander after.”[g] This also is vanity and a chase after wind.
II. Qoheleth’s Conclusions
10 Whatever is, was long ago given its name, and human nature is known; mortals cannot contend in judgment with One who is stronger.[h] 11 For the more words, the more vanity; what profit is there for anyone? 12 (J)For who knows what is good for mortals in life, the limited days of their vain life, spent like a shadow? Because who can tell them what will come afterward under the sun?(K)
A. No One Can Find Out the Best Way of Acting
Chapter 7
Critique of Sages on the Day of Adversity
1 A good name is better than good ointment,[i]
and the day of death than the day of birth.(L)
2 It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to the house of feasting,
For that is the end of every mortal,
and the living should take it to heart.(M)
3 Sorrow is better than laughter;
when the face is sad, the heart grows wise.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of merriment.
5 It is better to listen to the rebuke of the wise
than to listen to the song of fools;
6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot,
so is the fool’s laughter.
This also is vanity.
7 Extortion can make a fool out of the wise,
and a bribe corrupts the heart.
8 Better is the end of a thing than its beginning;
better is a patient spirit than a lofty one.
9 Do not let anger upset your spirit,
for anger lodges in the bosom of a fool.
10 Do not say: How is it that former times were better than these? For it is not out of wisdom that you ask about this.
11 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance
and profitable to those who see the sun.
12 [j]For the protection of wisdom is as the protection of money; and knowledge is profitable because wisdom gives life to those who possess it.
13 Consider the work of God. Who can make straight what God has made crooked?(N) 14 On a good day enjoy good things, and on an evil day consider: Both the one and the other God has made, so that no one may find the least fault with him.
Critique of Sages on Justice and Wickedness. 15 [k]I have seen all manner of things in my vain days: the just perishing in their justice, and the wicked living long in their wickedness. 16 “Be not just to excess, and be not overwise. Why work your own ruin? 17 Be not wicked to excess, and be not foolish. Why should you die before your time?” 18 It is good to hold to this rule, and not to let that one go; but the one who fears God will succeed with both.
19 Wisdom is a better defense for the wise than ten princes in the city, 20 (O)yet there is no one on earth so just as to do good and never sin. 21 Do not give your heart to every word that is spoken; you may hear your servant cursing you, 22 for your heart knows that you have many times cursed others.
23 All these things I probed in wisdom. I said, “I will acquire wisdom”; but it was far beyond me. 24 What exists is far-reaching; it is deep, very deep:[l] Who can find it out? 25 [m](P)I turned my heart toward knowledge; I sought and pursued wisdom and its design, and I recognized that wickedness is foolishness and folly is madness.
Critique of Advice on Women. 26 (Q)More bitter than death I find the woman[n] who is a hunter’s trap, whose heart is a snare, whose hands are prison bonds. The one who pleases God will be delivered from her, but the one who displeases will be entrapped by her. 27 See, this have I found, says Qoheleth, adding one to one to find the sum. 28 What my soul still seeks and has yet to find is this: “One man out of a thousand have I found, but a woman among them all I have not found.” 29 But this alone I have found: God made humankind honest, but they have pursued many designs.
Chapter 8
Critique of Advice to Heed Authority
1 [o]Who is like the wise person,
and who knows the explanation of things?
Wisdom illumines the face
and transforms a grim countenance.
2 Observe the command of the king, in view of your oath to God. 3 Be not hasty to withdraw from the king; do not persist in an unpleasant situation, for he does whatever he pleases. 4 His word is sovereign, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
5 [p](R)“Whoever observes a command knows no harm, and the wise heart knows times and judgments.” 6 (S)Yes, there is a time and a judgment for everything. But it is a great evil for mortals 7 (T)that they are ignorant of what is to come; for who will make known to them how it will be? 8 No one is master of the breath of life so as to retain it, and none has mastery of the day of death. There is no exemption in wartime, nor does wickedness deliver those who practice it. 9 All these things I saw and I applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun, while one person tyrannizes over another for harm.
The Problem of Retribution. 10 Meanwhile I saw the wicked buried. They would come and go from the holy place. But those were forgotten in the city who had acted justly. This also is vanity.[q] 11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not promptly executed, the human heart is filled with the desire to commit evil— 12 [r]because the sinner does evil a hundred times and survives. Though indeed I know that it shall be well with those who fear God, for their reverence toward him; 13 and that it shall not be well with the wicked, who shall not prolong their shadowy days, for their lack of reverence toward God.
14 This is a vanity that occurs on earth: There are those who are just but are treated as though they had done evil, and those who are wicked but are treated as though they had done justly. This, too, I say is vanity. 15 (U)Therefore I praised joy, because there is nothing better for mortals under the sun than to eat and to drink and to be joyful; this will accompany them in their toil through the limited days of life God gives them under the sun.
16 I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, though neither by day nor by night do one’s eyes see sleep, 17 (V)and I saw all the work of God: No mortal can find out the work that is done under the sun. However much mortals may toil in searching, no one finds it out; and even if the wise claim to know, they are unable to find it out.
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