Ecclesiastes 7-9

From today's Bible reading:

Ecclesiastes 7:

A good name is better than precious ointment,
and the day of death than the day of birth.

It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting,
for this is the end of all mankind,
and the living will lay it to heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter,
for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

(In other words, fools "fight for their right to party.")

Better is the end of a thing than its beginning,
and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,
for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.

Say not, "Why were the former days better than these?"
For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

(It is not wise to talk about "the good old days.")

For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money,
and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.

Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?
Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?

Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.

(Rulers are not necessarily wise.)

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.

That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?

I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.

Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things—which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found.

("the scheme of things" = trying to figure all of life out--the meaning of life and everything)

God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

(Schemes are simply our attempts at replacing God.)

Ecclesiastes 8:

A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death.

Man had power over man to his hurt.

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.

And I commend joy, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one's eyes see sleep, then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun.

However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out.
Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.

Ecclesiastes 9:

Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.

Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.

Man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.


I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me:

There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it.

But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.


The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.