1For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, [are] in the hand of God-Elohim (The Living Word) [The Many Powered]: no man knows either love or hatred [by] all [that is] before them.

2All [things come] alike to all: [there is] one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrifices, and to him that sacrifices not: as [is] the good, so [is] the sinner; [and] he that swears, as [he] that fears an oath. 3This [is] an evil among all [things] that are done under the sun, that [there is] one event unto all: yes, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness [is] in their heart while they live, and after that [they go] to the dead. 4For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 6Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in any [thing] that is done under the sun.

7Go youⁱ way, eat youⁱ bread with joy, and drink youⁱ wine with a merry heart; for God-Elohim (The Living Word) [The Many Powered] now accepts youⁱ works. 8Let youⁱ garments be always white; and let youⁱ head lack no ointment. 9Live joyfully with the wife whom youⁱ love all the days of the life of youⁱ vanity, which he has given youⁱ under the sun, all the days of youⁱ vanity: for that [is] youⁱ portion in [this] life, and in youⁱ labour which youⁱ take under the sun.

10Whatsoever youⁱ hand finds to do, do [it] with youⁱ might; for [there is] no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, to which youⁱ go.

11I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race [is] not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all. 12For man also knows not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so [are] the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them.

13This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it [seemed] great unto me: 14[There was] a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it: 15Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. 16Then said I, Wisdom [is] better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom [is] despised, and his words are not heard. 17The words of wise [men are] heard in quiet more than the cry of him that rules among fools. 18Wisdom [is] better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroys much good.