The Mystery of Injustice

¹A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death better than the day of one’s birth.

²It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart.

³Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the face the heart is made good.

⁴The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

⁵It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools.

⁶For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity.

⁷Surely extortion makes the wise man foolish; and a bribe destroys the understanding.

⁸Better is the end of a thing than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

⁹Don’t be hasty in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools.

¹⁰Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not ask wisely about this.

¹¹Wisdom is as good as an inheritance. Yes, it is more excellent for those who see the sun.

¹²For wisdom is a defense, even as money is a defense; but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

¹³Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight which he has made crooked?

¹⁴In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; yes, God has made the one side by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out anything after him.

¹⁵All this I have seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing.

¹⁶Don’t be overly righteous, neither make yourself overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?

¹⁷Don’t be too wicked, neither be foolish. Why should you die before your time?

¹⁸It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also don’t withdraw your hand from that; for he who fears God will come out of them all.

¹⁹Wisdom is a strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.

²⁰Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and doesn’t sin.

²¹Also don’t take heed to all words that are spoken, lest you hear your servant curse you;

²²for often your own heart knows that you yourself have likewise cursed others.

²³All this I have proved in wisdom. I said, “I will be wise;” but it was far from me.

²⁴That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out?

²⁵I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity, and that foolishness is madness.

²⁶I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.

²⁷“Behold, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “to one another, to find an explanation

²⁸which my soul still seeks, but I have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all those.

²⁹Behold, I have only found this: that God made mankind upright; but they search for many inventions.”

¹Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

²I say, “Keep the king’s command!” because of the oath to God.

³Don’t be hasty to go out of his presence. Don’t persist in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him,

⁴for the king’s word is supreme. Who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵Whoever keeps the commandment shall not come to harm, and his wise heart will know the time and procedure.

⁶For there is a time and procedure for every purpose, although the misery of man is heavy on him.

⁷For he doesn’t know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?

⁸There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.

⁹All this I have seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt.

¹⁰So I saw the wicked buried. Indeed they came also from holiness. They went and were forgotten in the city where they did this. This also is vanity.

¹¹Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

¹²Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.

¹³But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow, because he doesn’t fear God.

¹⁴There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

¹⁵Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat, to drink, and to be joyful: for that will accompany him in his labor all the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (even though eyes see no sleep day or night),

¹⁷then I saw all the work of God, that man can’t find out the work that is done under the sun, because however much a man labors to seek it out, yet he won’t find it. Yes even though a wise man thinks he can comprehend it, he won’t be able to find it.