Ecclesiastes 7

¹³And I heard a voice from heaven telling me to write, “Blessed are the dead—those who die in the Lord from this moment on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them.”

¹A good name is more desirable than great riches; favor is better than silver and gold.

²So I admired the dead, who had already died, above the living, who are still alive.

⁸We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

²¹For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

²²But if I go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. So what shall I choose? I do not know.

¹For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

¹²So teach us to number our days, that we may present a heart of wisdom.

²⁷Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,

²⁹If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.

⁴⁶he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law.

¹⁹Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.

³For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.

⁴Because of this, they consider it strange of you not to plunge with them into the same flood of reckless indiscretion, and they heap abuse on you.

⁹yet now I rejoice, not because you were made sorrowful, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you felt the sorrow that God had intended, and so were not harmed in any way by us.

¹⁰Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

³Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope.

⁸Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

²⁰Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.

²¹A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

¹⁰Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness.

¹¹No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.

¹⁷For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.

¹⁴When Jesus arrived at Peter’s house, He saw Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed with a fever.

¹⁵So He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve Him.

¹²As He approached the town gate, He saw a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.

¹³When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said, “Do not weep.”

³⁶When Abigail returned to Nabal, there he was in the house, holding a feast fit for a king, in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing until morning light.

²so the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, though you are not ill? This could only be sadness of the heart.” I was overwhelmed with fear

³and replied to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should I not be sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

³⁹While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast, and I will make them drunk so that they may revel; then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up, declares the Lord.

³He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

⁴Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.

³¹He who listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise.

³²He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.

⁵Let the righteous man strike me; let his rebuke be an act of loving devotion. It is oil for my head; let me not refuse it. For my prayer is ever against the deeds of the wicked.

¹⁹Those I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.

¹⁸Poverty and shame come to him who ignores discipline, but whoever heeds correction is honored.

¹⁰A rebuke cuts into a man of discernment deeper than a hundred lashes cut into a fool.

⁸Do not rebuke a mocker, or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.

⁹Before your pots can feel the burning thorns—whether green or dry—He will sweep them away.

¹²They swarmed around me like bees, but they were extinguished like burning thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off.

²I said of laughter, “It is folly,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?”

²⁵Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

¹²These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.

¹³They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

¹³Therefore this is what the Lord God says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.

¹⁴My servants will shout for joy with a glad heart, but you will cry out with a heavy heart and wail with a broken spirit.

¹⁹Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

⁸Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous.

²³A wicked man takes a covert bribe to subvert the course of justice.

¹Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; the power lay in the hands of their oppressors, and there was no comforter.

²³Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.

³But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside toward dishonest gain, accepting bribes and perverting justice.

³⁶You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.

⁵Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy.

⁶He who goes out weeping, bearing a trail of seed, will surely return with shouts of joy, carrying sheaves of grain.

²⁹A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man promotes folly.

¹³Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹¹See how blessed we consider those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen the outcome from the Lord. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

¹⁸A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms dispute.

¹⁹My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

¹⁷A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, and a devious man is hated.

³²He who is slow to anger is better than a warrior, and he who controls his temper is greater than one who captures a city.

²⁶“Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger,

²⁷and do not give the devil a foothold.

²³Like glaze covering an earthen vessel are burning lips and a wicked heart.

²⁴A hateful man disguises himself with his speech, but he lays up deceit in his heart.

³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble upon me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people of this land. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”

³¹But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”

²The Lord looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God.

³All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

¹¹Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and full of violence.

¹²And God looked upon the earth and saw that it was corrupt; for all living creatures on the earth had corrupted their ways.

²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools,

²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

¹This is what the Lord says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.

¹³“Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wonders of which our fathers told us, saying, ‘Has not the Lord brought us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”

⁹What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin.

¹⁰As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.

⁷Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.

¹⁷Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.

¹⁸Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, and to be generous and ready to share,

¹⁰Receive my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold.

¹¹For wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire compares with her.

¹³And I saw that wisdom exceeds folly, just as light exceeds darkness:

¹⁵Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he saved the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

¹⁶And I said, “Wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded.”

⁸The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the sons of light.

⁹I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings.

³⁵For whoever finds me finds life and obtains the favor of the Lord.

⁷He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk with integrity,

¹⁸She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who lay hold of her are blessed.

⁴Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.

¹⁵But the thornbush replied, ‘If you really are anointing me as king over you, come and find refuge in my shade. But if not, may fire come out of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’

⁵⁰And I know that His command leads to eternal life. So I speak exactly what the Father has told Me to say.”

¹⁵What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

¹⁴What He tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man He imprisons cannot be released.

⁴³Let him who is wise pay heed to these things and consider the loving devotion of the Lord.

²⁷The Lord of Hosts has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is outstretched, so who can turn it back?

¹¹He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end.

¹²At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the Lord and fail to see the work of His hands.

⁴a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

²²I have seen that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will come after him?

³He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

¹³When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.

¹³Is any one of you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises.

⁴⁷Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance,

¹²Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I also know that it will go well with those who fear God, who are reverent in His presence.

¹³Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

¹²For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?

³For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴They have no struggle in their death; their bodies are well-fed.

³⁴Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town.

³⁵And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

¹So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.

²It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.

²³Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

³For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you.

¹⁶If you find honey, eat just what you need, lest you have too much and vomit it up.

¹⁸Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you with speculation about what he has seen. Such a person is puffed up without basis by his unspiritual mind.

¹³Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

¹⁴But if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth.

¹“Be careful not to perform your righteous acts before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

²So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.

¹⁸Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.

²⁷The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be cut short.

¹⁶They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood.

²³But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.

²³Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

¹⁰At that instant she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

⁵On hearing these words, Ananias fell down and died. And great fear came over all who heard what had happened.

¹³When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.

⁶Sow your seed in the morning, and do not rest your hands in the evening, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or if both will equally prosper.

²“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.

¹²Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I also know that it will go well with those who fear God, who are reverent in His presence.

⁵⁰His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation.

⁴²Woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithes of mint, rue, and every herb, but you disregard justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.

²²A wise man scales the city of the mighty and pulls down the stronghold in which they trust.

⁹For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

¹⁰so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

¹³I have also seen this wisdom under the sun, and it was great to me:

¹⁴There was a small city with few men. A mighty king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege ramps against it.

⁵A wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge enhances his strength.

¹⁶a wise woman called out from the city, “Listen! Listen! Please tell Joab to come here so that I may speak with him.”

¹⁷When he had come near to her, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?” “I am,” he replied. “Listen to the words of your servant,” she said. “I am listening,” he answered.

²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

⁶We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

⁸If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

⁹If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

²We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole body.

⁹Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am cleansed from my sin”?

⁴⁶When they sin against You—for there is no one who does not sin—and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to his own land, whether far or near,

¹⁰Do not slander a servant to his master, or he will curse you, and you will bear the guilt.

²¹those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.

¹⁰But the king replied, “What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah? If he curses me because the Lord told him, ‘Curse David,’ who can ask, ‘Why did you do this?’”

¹⁹and said, “My lord, do not hold me guilty, and do not remember your servant’s wrongdoing on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart.

⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.

⁶Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.

⁹With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.

¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.

³²Then the master summoned him and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me.

³³Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’

⁴⁴The king also said, “You know in your heart all the evil that you did to my father David. Therefore the Lord will bring your evil back upon your head.

⁷When they continued to question Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.”

⁸And again He bent down and wrote on the ground.

²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools,

²⁰Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

⁵“For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

¹King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

²These women were from the nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.

¹¹So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this instead of requesting long life or wealth for yourself or death for your enemies—but you have asked for discernment to administer justice—

¹²behold, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been another like you, nor will there ever be.

³³O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

⁸“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.

⁹“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁶He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light. No one has ever seen Him, nor can anyone see Him. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

²⁸And He said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

¹²But where can wisdom be found, and where does understanding dwell?

¹³No man can know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.

¹³The beginning of his talk is folly, and the end of his speech is evil madness.

¹³Get up and consecrate the people, saying, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Among you, O Israel, there are things devoted to destruction. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.

¹⁵So I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will also befall me. What then have I gained by being wise?” And I said to myself that this too is futile.

¹²It is better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly.

¹⁶Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.

¹⁷I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every deed.”

³Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

⁴“Where is the promise of His coming?” they will ask. “Ever since our fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has from the beginning of creation.”

¹⁴The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the Lord will fall into it.

³Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,

⁴in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

¹⁶It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words

¹⁸For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.

¹⁹None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.

²⁶To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.

²⁸Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men.

⁸“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile!”

⁹Not only was the Teacher wise, but he also taught the people knowledge; he pondered, searched out, and arranged many proverbs.

¹These are the words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:

²“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”

²³Yet if there is a messenger on his side, one mediator in a thousand, to tell a man what is right for him,

¹For the choirmaster. According to Sheminith. A Psalm of David. Help, O Lord, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.

¹King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

²These women were from the nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.

⁹My soul longs for You in the night; indeed, my spirit seeks You at dawn. For when Your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.

²³All this I tested by wisdom, saying, “I resolve to be wise.” But it was beyond me.

²⁴What exists is out of reach and very deep. Who can fathom it?

²²“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”

¹¹Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and full of violence.

¹²And God looked upon the earth and saw that it was corrupt; for all living creatures on the earth had corrupted their ways.

⁸You have disregarded the commandment of God to keep the tradition of men.”

⁹He went on to say, “You neatly set aside the command of God to maintain your own tradition.

³For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

¹This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in His own likeness.

⁶When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

⁷And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.