CHAPTER 7

¹Better a good name than good oil, and the day of death than the day one is born. ²Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of carousing. For that is the end of all men—let the living take it to heart. ³Better worry than merriment, for by a scowl the heart is gladdened. ⁴The wise men’s heart is in the house of mourning, and the heart of fools in the house of mirth. ⁵Better to hear the rebuke of the wise than a man hearing the song of fools. ⁶For like the sound of thorns beneath the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. And this, too, is mere breath. ⁷For oppression’s profit drives the wise man wild, and a bribe destroys the mind. ⁸Better a thing’s end than its beginning; better patience than haughtiness. ⁹Do not be rash in your mood to be angry, for anger rests in the lap of fools. ¹⁰Say not: What has happened, that the days gone by were better than these? For you asked not about this in wisdom. ¹¹Better wisdom with a legacy, it is an advan tage to those who see the sun. ¹²For in wisdom’s shade is money’s shade, and the gain of wisdom’s knowledge keeps its possessors alive. ¹³See God’s work, for who can straighten what He has made crooked? ¹⁴On the day of good luck, enjoy the good, and on the day of evil, see: one against the other God has set, so that man find nothing after him. ¹⁵Everything have I seen in my days of mere breath: the righteous perishing in his righteousness, and the wicked living a long life in his evil. ¹⁶Do not be overrighteous and do not be overwise. Why should you be dumbfounded? ¹⁷Don’t be overwicked and don’t be a fool. Why should you die before your time? ¹⁸It is good that you seize this, and from the other as well do not take back your hand, for he who fears God will get out of them all. ¹⁹Wisdom is stronger for the wise than ten rulers who are in the town. ²⁰For there is no man righteous on earth who does good and will not offend. ²¹To all the words, too, that they speak, do not pay heed, that you hear not your servant reviling you. ²²For many times, too, your heart has known, that you, too, have reviled others. ²³All this I tried out through wisdom. I said, Let me grow wise, and it was far away from me. ²⁴Far away that which was and deep, deep—who can find it? ²⁵I turned round in my heart to know and to inquire and seek wisdom and reckoning and to know foolish wickedness and mad folly. ²⁶And I find woman more bitter than death. For she is all snares, and nets her heart, and fetters her arms. He who is good before God will escape her, and an offender will be trapped by her. ²⁷See, this have I found, said Qohelet: one by one to find a reckoning. ²⁸Further I sought and did not find—one man in a thousand I found, and a woman among all these I did not find. ²⁹Except, see this I found: that God made men upright, but they sought many reckonings.