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2 It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
since death is the destiny of all people;
and the living should take this to heart.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter,
because a sad face is good for the heart.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise
than to hear the song of fools.
6 Like the crackling of thorns under a pot,
so is the laughter of fools.
This too is futile.
7 Surely extortion turns a wise man into a fool,
for a bribe corrupts the heart.
8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning;
better a patient spirit than a proud spirit.
9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,
for anger dwells in the heart of fools.
10 Do not ask, “Why were the old days better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
11 Wisdom is beneficial, as with an inheritance,
and it is an advantage to those who see the sun,
12 for wisdom is a safeguard
like money is a safeguard,
but the advantage of knowledge is this:
that wisdom preserves the life of those who possess it.
13 Consider the work of God:
Who can make straight
what He has made crooked?
14 In the day of prosperity, be happy;
but in the day of adversity, consider:
God has made the one
as well as the other.
Therefore, a man cannot discover
anything that will come after him.
15 In my futile life I have seen these:
a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness,
and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.
16 Do not be too righteous,
and do not be too wise—
why should you destroy yourself?
17 Do not be too wicked,
and do not be a fool—
why should you die before your time?
18 It is good that you grasp the one
and do not allow the other to slip from your hand;
for the man who fears God will come through with both of them.
19 Wisdom makes the wise man more powerful
than ten rulers in a city.
20 There is not one righteous man on earth
who always does good and never sins.
21 Do not pay close attention to every word that people say,
or you may hear your servant cursing you—
22 for you also know in your own heart
that many times you yourself have cursed others.
23 All this I have tested by wisdom, and I said,
“I am determined to be wise”—
but this was beyond me.
24 Wisdom is something distant and very deep—
who can discover it?
25 So I applied my mind to understand,
and to search and to seek out wisdom and the scheme of things,
and to know the stupidity of wickedness
and the madness of folly.
26 I find more bitter than death
the woman who is a snare,
whose heart is a trap,
and whose hands are chains.
The man who pleases God will escape her,
but the sinner she will ensnare.
27 “Look, this is what I have discovered,” says the Teacher:
“Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—
28while my soul was still searching
but not finding—
I found one upright man among a thousand,
but not one upright woman among them all.
29 Only this alone I have found:
God made mankind upright,
but people go out in search of many schemes.”