The Book of Ecclesiastes

1* The words of Koheleth the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2* Perfect nonsense, says Koheleth—perfect nonsense—everything is nonsense.

3 How much is man better off by all the trouble he takes under the sun? 4 A generation goes and a generation comes, and the earth stands forever. 5* And the sun rises and the sun sets and bustles to its place where it rises. 6 The wind goes off to the south and round to the north, goes clear round, and the wind goes to going round again. 7 All the rivers go to the sea and the sea is not full; to the place the rivers go to they go over again. 8 All things work hard; a man cannot tell it out; an eye does not do all the seeing it will nor an ear get full with, hearing. 9 What was, that will be; and what has been done, that will be done; and there is not anything new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which one says “See this, it is new”—it has already been in the ages that there were before ours. 11 There is no remembrance of the past; and also of the future that is to be there will be no remembrance among those who shall be subsequently.

12 I Koheleth was king over Israel in Jerusalem, 13* and gave my mind to examining and exploring scientifically as to everything that is done under the skies—that is a bad employment God has given to mankind to employ themselves at. 14 I saw all the doings that go on under the sun, and found it was all nonsense and chasing after wind: 15 a crooked thing cannot be set straight and a deficit cannot be counted in. 16 I talked with myself, saying “Here I have greatened wisdom and added to it above all that there had been before me over Jerusalem, and my heart has seen a great deal of wisdom and knowledge, 17 and I have applied my heart to knowledge of wisdom and knowledge of craziness and foolery; I have learned that this too is a pursuit of wind, 18 because in much wisdom there is much vexation and one who adds to knowledge adds to pain.”

2** I said to myself “Come on, I will try you with merrymaking; have a good time!” and found that too was nonsense. 2 I said of laughter “crazy” and of merrymaking “What does this accomplish?” 3** I thought up the idea of drawing my flesh on with wine while my mind kept the course with wisdom, taking a grip on foolery till I should see which thing is good for mankind to do under the skies such time as they live. 4 I made my works great: I built myself houses, planted myself vineyards, 5 made myself gardens and parks and planted all sorts of fruit trees in them, 6 made myself reservoirs of water to water groves and shrubberies out of, 7 bought slaves and raised slaves, also had more livestock, cattle and sheep and goats, than anybody that had been before me in Jerusalem, 8* amassed myself silver and gold too and the rarities of kings and provinces, got myself singers of both sexes and mankind’s voluptuous delights, many a lady. 9 And I grew great and surpassed anybody that had been before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom too stood by me. 10* And nothing that my eyes asked for did I cut off from them; I did not check my heart from any enjoyments, but my heart got enjoyment out of all my trouble, and this was the portion I had from all my trouble. 11 And I faced all my works that my hands had made and all the trouble that I had taken in the making, and found it was all nonsense and chasing after wind, and nobody was better off under the sun.

12** And I faced round to see wisdom and craziness and foolery—because what is the man who comes after the king to do? what has been done already— 13 and I saw that wisdom has as much advantage over foolery as light has over darkness; 14 the wise man has his eyes in his head, and the fool walks in the dark. But I had also learned that one fate befalls them all. 15 And I thought to myself “A fate like the fool’s will befall me also, and then what was I wiser for?” and I said to myself that this too was nonsense, 16 for the wise man with the fool has no remembrance forever, inasmuch as in the coming days everything will already have been forgotten; and how the wise man has to die with the fool! 17 and I hated life, because I felt the work that is done under the sun to be a bad thing because everything is nonsense and chasing after wind.

18 And I hated everything I had taken so much trouble about under the sun, seeing I was to leave it to the man who should be after me— 19 and who knows whether he will be wise or foolish? but he will control everything I have taken so much trouble about and been so wise about under the sun—this is nonsense too; 20 and I swung round to lose interest in everything I had taken so much trouble about under the sun. 21 For there is a man whose trouble is taken with wisdom and knowledge and judgment, and he is to give it over to be the portion of a man that took no trouble about it—this too is nonsense, and a very bad thing. 22 For what does a man have by all his trouble and his purposes that he takes trouble for under the sun, 23* that all his life he is taken up with pain and vexation, his heart does not even lie quiet at night? this too is nonsense.

24 There is nothing better among men than that one should eat and drink and let himself see good by his trouble. This too I have seen to be from God’s hand; 25 for who should eat or find flavor in anything without him? 26 For to the man who is good from his point of view he gives wisdom and knowledge and gladness, but to the sinner he gives a task of collecting and amassing to give to one who is good from God’s point of view—this too is nonsense and chasing after wind.

3 There is a season of everything, and a time of every concern under the heavens: 2 a time of being born and a time of dying, a time of planting and a time of grubbing out what was planted, 3 a time of killing and a time of healing, a time of wrecking and a time of building, 4 a time of weeping and a time of laughing, a time of wailing and a time of dancing, 5 a time of throwing stones about and a time of gathering up stones, a time of embracing and a time of shunning embraces, 6 a time of hunting up and a time of losing, a time of keeping and a time of throwing away, 7 a time of tearing and a time of sewing, a time of keeping silence and a time of speaking, 8 a time of loving and a time of hating, a time of war and a time of peace. 9 How much is the doer better off by his trouble? 10 I have seen the employment God has given to mankind to employ themselves at: 11 he has made everything fine at its time, he has even put eternity into their minds except that man does not find out the work God has done from beginning to end; 12 I have learned that there is nothing good among them but to enjoy one’s self and get on well while one is alive. 13* And besides, when any man does eat and drink and see good by all his trouble it is God’s gift. 14** I have learned that everything that God makes will be so forever; there is no adding to it nor subtracting from it; and God makes them fear before him. 15* Whatever is, already was; and what shall be, already is; and God hunts up antiquated things.

16** And furthermore I saw under the sun, in the place for judgment, wrong there; and in the place for the right-doer, the wrong-doer there. 17* I said to myself “God will judge the right-doer and the wrong-doer, because he has set a time of every concern and for every action.” 18 I said to myself “on account of mankind, for God to sift them out and for their own seeing that they are cattle, 19** because mankind are an accident and cattle are an accident, and they have one fate: as this one dies, so does that one, and everything has one spirit, and man has no superiority over cattle because everything is nonsense. 20 Everything goes to one place: everything is out of the clay and everything goes back to the clay; 21* and who knows as to mankind’s spirit whether it goes up and as to cattle’s spirit whether it goes down to the ground?” 22 And I saw that there was nothing better than that man should enjoy himself in his works, because that is his portion; for who will bring him to look upon what is to be after him?

4* And I came back to seeing all the denials of justice that are committed under the sun: there were the tears of the oppressed and no comforter for them, and on the part of their oppressors power and no comforter for them; 2 and I congratulated the dead who have already died rather than the living who are still alive, 3 and, better than either of them, him who has not yet existed, who has not seen the bad work that is done under the sun.

4 And I saw all taking of trouble and all efficiency in work to be rivalry between man and man; this too is nonsense and chasing after wind. 5 —The fool folds his arms and eats his own flesh.— 6 Better a handful of rest than a double handful of trouble and chasing after wind.

7 And I came back to seeing a piece of nonsense under the sun: 8 there is one man and no second one, he has neither son nor brother; and there is no end to all the trouble he takes, nor do his eyes get their fill of riches, and for whom am I taking the trouble and depriving myself of good things? this too is nonsense and a bad business. 9* Better two than one, because when they take trouble they get good pay. 10* For if they fall, one will help his comrade to his feet; but woe to a single man who falls and has no second to help him up! 11 Also, if two are lying in bed they will be warm, but how is just one to be warm? 12 And if somebody would overpower the single man, the two will stand up to him. And a three-stranded cord is not quickly to be broken.

13 Better a destitute but wise lad than an old and foolish king who no longer knows enough to take warning, 14 because out of prison he came out to become king when in his very kingdom he had been born poor. 15* I saw all the living, those who walk about under the sun, with the lad, the second, who was to stand in his place. 16* There was no end of all the people, all at whose head he was; but neither were those who came after to be glad of him, because this too was nonsense and chasing after wind.

5*** Mind your step when you go to God’s house: coming near to hear is better than fools’ giving a sacrifice, because they do not know how to do anything but what is bad. 2 Do not get your mouth into a rush, and let your heart not be quick about bringing out a word before God; for God is in heaven and you on earth; therefore let your words be few. 3 For a dream comes with a great deal of business, and a fool’s voice with a great deal of talk. 4 When you make a vow to God do not be backward about paying it off, because fools are not liked; pay what you vowed; 5 better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. 6** Do not permit your mouth to bring your flesh into sin, and do not say before the angel that it was unintentional; why should God be incensed at your voice and ruin the work of your hands? 7* For with many dreams and nonsenses there is much talk; but fear God.

8* If in the province you see disregard of a poor man’s claims and usurpation against law and right, do not be shocked at the affair, because above a high man a higher man is on the watch, and higher men above them. 9 But it is to a country’s advantage, for all that, that a cultivated region should have a king.

10 One who loves money will not get his fill of money; nor whoever loves affluence, of income; this too is nonsense: 11 when there is much good cheer there are many eaters of it, and what result does its owner have except the looking on? 12 The worker’s sleep is sweet whether he eats little or much, but fullness for a rich man does not give him a chance to go to sleep. 13 There is a galling evil I have seen under the sun—riches watched over by their owner to his own harm, 14 and those riches are lost in some bad affair, and he has a son born, and he has nothing in his hands; 15 as he came out of his mother’s body, naked he goes back, going as he came, and does not pick up by his trouble anything that he can take along in his hand. 16 And this too is a galling evil: just the way he came, so he goes, and how much is he better off for putting himself to trouble just for wind? 17* and all his life is spent in darkness and mourning and many annoyances and diseases and exasperations. Here is the way I see it: 18* it is best that one should turn his attention to eating and drinking and seeing good by all his trouble that he takes under the sun in such time for living as God has given him, because that is his portion. 19* Also, when God has given any man riches and substance and the privilege of eating from it and of taking up his portion and of enjoying himself for his trouble, this is God’s gift, 20 for he will not much remember the days he has lived through because God busies him with his heart’s enjoyment.

6 There is an evil I have seen under the sun, and man has upon him a great deal of it: 2* a man to whom God gives riches and substance and honors, and he has no shortage of anything his appetites crave, and God does not give him the privilege of eating from it but some alien eats it; this is nonsense and a grievous disorder. 3** If a man has a hundred born to him and lives many years, ever so long a life, and his appetites do not take their fill of good things and he does not have a regular burial either, I say a stillbirth is a better case than his, 4 because it came in nothingness and goes in darkness, and with darkness its name is covered, 5* neither has it seen or known the sun—this has a more restful state than that man. 6 And if one lives a thousand years twice over and does not see good, does not everything go to one place? 7 All man’s trouble is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. 8* For how much better off is the wise man than the fool? how much the humble man who knows how to walk before the living? 9 Better seeing with eyes than rambling of desires. This too is nonsense and chasing after wind.

10* What is is already named and known to be man, and he cannot contest against him who is more potent than he. 11 For there are many words that increase nonsense; what advance does man make? 12* For who knows what is good for man in life, as many as are his days of nonsensical life which he passes through like a shadow? for who is to tell man what is to be after him under the sun?

7 A name is better than choice oil; and the day of death than that of one’s birth.

2 Better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of banqueting, inasmuch as that is the end of all humanity, and the living man will take it to heart.

3 Better gloominess than laughter, because by grimness in the face the mind is in good spirits.

4 Wise men’s hearts are in a house of mourning, but fools’ hearts are in a house of merrymaking.

5* Better to listen to a wise man’s rebuke than anybody’s listening to the singing of fools. 6* For like the sound of fires of briers, such is fools’ laughter.

7** And this too is nonsense, that denial of justice maddens a wise man and ruins sensible men’s brains.

8* Better the future of a thing than its past; better a patient spirit than a pretentious spirit.

9 Do not rush into getting your spirit vexed, because vexation rests in fools’ bosoms.

10* Do not say “What has happened, that past times were better than these?” for it is not out of wisdom that you ask about this.

11 Wisdom with an inheritance is a good thing, and to the advantage of those who see the sun. 12* For the shade of money is like the shade of wisdom, but the advantage of knowledge is, wisdom gives life to its possessors.

13 See God’s work; for who is able to set straight what he crooks?

14 On a day of good be in a good mood, and on a day of evil see: God made this too to go with that, with a view to man’s not finding out anything that is to follow.

15** I have seen everything happen in my days of nonsense. There is such a thing as a right-doer perishing in his right-doing, and there is such a thing as a wrong-doer getting a long life in his wrong-doing. 16 Do not be an extreme right-doer and do not go in excessively for wisdom: why turn anchorite? 17 Do not go to extremes in doing wrong, and do not be foolish: why die before your time? 18 Better hold on to this and not let go of that, because one who fears God will get through with all of it.

19 —Wisdom is stronger for the wise man than any ten autocrats that there have been in the city.— 20 For there is no human saint on earth that does what is good and never sins.

21 Do not take notice, either, of all words that are spoken, that you may not hear your slave curse you; 22 for you know yourself that many times you yourself have cursed others.

23 All this I probed by wisdom. I thought I would be wise; but that was too far off for me. 24 What is is far off and deep, deep; who is to find it out?

25 I have gone about, my heart and I, to know and to explore and search out wisdom and science, and to know wrong to be folly, and fooling to be craziness. 26 And I find a bitterer thing than death: woman, whose heart is toils and nets and whose arms are fetters; one whom God finds good will get clear of her, but a sinner will be caught on her. 27 See, this I have found, says Koheleth, putting one thing with another to get a result, 28 that my soul still searched and I did not find. One out of a thousand of mankind I found, but a woman among all these I never did find. 29 This alone, see, I did find: that God made man straight, but they have hunted out many contrivances.

8 Who is like the wise man? and who knows the explanation of a thing? A man’s wisdom puts light into his face, and the hardness of his face is changed.

2*** Comply with a king’s words; and, in view of your oath by God, 3 do not be in consternation, go away from his presence; do not stand in a bad business. For he does anything he chooses to, 4 inasmuch as a king’s word is authoritative, and who will say to him “What are you doing?”

5 A commandment-keeper will know nothing of a bad business; and a wise man’s heart will know time and judgment, 6 for every affair has a time and a judgment, because man has much evil upon him, 7 because he does not know what is to come; for when it is coming, who is to tell him? 8 There is no man who controls the wind so as to shut off the wind; and nobody is in control of the day of death; and there is no dismissal in war; and wrong will not bring safety to those who commit it.

9* All this I saw, keeping my mind on all the work that was done under the sun, at a time when man had control of man to his own harm. 10* And then I saw wrong-doers buried, and coming in, out of a holy place, and their bad record forgotten in the city. This too is nonsense, 11** that sentence on evil-doing is not quickly executed; therefore the hearts of mankind are altogether determined to do evil, 12** inasmuch as a sinner does evil all along and has a long life—though I do know that for those who fear God there will be good inasmuch as they stand in fear before him, 13 but for the wrong-doer there will not be good and he will have no long life, like a shadow, inasmuch as he does not stand in fear before God. 14 There is a piece of nonsense that is done on earth, that there are right-doers to whom there happens what is suitable to wrong-doers’ work and there are wrong-doers to whom there happens what is suitable to right-doers’ work. I say this is nonsense too. 15* And I praise merrymaking, inasmuch as there is nothing good for man under the sun but to eat and drink and make merry, and he will have that to go with him for his trouble through his time of life which God has given to him under the sun.

16*** When I applied my heart to knowing wisdom and seeing all the business that is done on earth—for day and night it does not get even a glimpse of sleep— 17 I saw all God’s work, how man cannot make out all the work that is done under the sun, inasmuch as man puts himself to trouble looking into it but does not make it out, and even if the wise man professes to know he cannot make it out.

9 For I took all this into my heart, and my heart saw all this, that the righteous and the wise and their doings are in God’s hands: neither love nor hate does man know about. 2* Everything that has gone before them is nonsense, as there is one fate for all, for the right-doer and the wrong-doer, and for the clean and the unclean, and for the sacrificer and the nonsacrificer; the good man is like the sinner, the swearer like him who is afraid of swearing. 3 This is a bad thing in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all; and also the hearts of mankind are full of evil, and they have craziness in their hearts through their lives; and afterward, to the dead, 4** for who is there that has a choice As to all the living there is something to depend on; for a living dog is thereby better than the dead lion. 5 For the living know they are to die, but the dead do not know a thing, and no longer get any reward, because the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Both their love and their hate and their ardors are lost in the past, and they no longer have a part, forever not, in anything that is done under the sun. 7 Go, eat your bread in merriment and drink your wine with happy heart, because God has already given his approval to your doings. 8 At every time be your clothes white and oil not scanty on your head. 9 Gaze on life with a wife you love, all the days of your nonsensical life that God has given to you under the sun; all the days of your nonsense, because that is the portion you get by living and by your trouble that you take under the sun. 10 Everything that comes within your reach to do with your powers, do; because there is no action nor purpose nor knowledge nor wisdom in the world below, where you are going.

11* I came back seeing under the sun that the race does not go to the swift nor the battle to the crack fighters, neither does bread go to the wise, neither do riches go to the longheaded, neither does popularity go to the knowing, because time and chance happen to all of them. 12 For man does not know his time either: like the fishes, that are gripped by a disastrous net, or like the birds, that are gripped by the trap, like them mankind are trapped in a disastrous time when it falls upon them suddenly.

13 This too I saw of wisdom under the sun, and it was great to me: 14 a small city, and few men in it, and there came to it a great king and surrounded it and built great towers against it; 15 but he found in it a wise poor man, and he preserved the city by his wisdom; but people did not remember that poor man. 16 And I say, wisdom is better than prowess, but the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not listened to. 17 —Wise men’s words in quiet are heard better than the screams of a ruler among fools. 18* Wisdom is better than weapons of battle. But one bungler brings the loss of a great deal of good.

10* Dead flies taint perfumer’s oil with foul-smelling bubbles; a little foolishness outweighs wisdom and standing.

2 A wise man’s heart is toward his right, but a fool’s heart toward his left. 3 And even on the road as the foolish man is walking his brains give out and he tells everybody he is foolish.

4* If the ruler’s temper rises against you, do not leave your position; for coolness quiets down great faults.

5* There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, seeming like a blunder that originates among the autocrat’s officers: 6 foolishness is put in many lofty positions and rich men sit in low places; 7 I have seen slaves on horseback and chieftains walking on the ground like slaves.

8 He who digs a pit falls into it, and he who breaks down a wall has, a snake bite him; 9 he who takes out stones gets hurt by them; he who splits wood is in danger by it. 10 If the iron has grown dull and he has not whetted, then he exerts himself; but wisdom is an advantage for giving efficiency. 11 If the snake bites without having been charmed, one is no better off for having a skilled tongue.

12* The words of a wise man’s mouth are ingratiating, but a fool’s lips swamp him. 13* The first words of his mouth are foolishness and the last of it is a bad case of craziness; 14 and the foolish fellow makes a lot of talk. Man does not know what will happen, and who is to tell him what is to come after him? 15** The fool’s trouble tires him out, as he does not know enough to walk to town.

16 Alas for you, country whose king is a boy and whose generals eat in the morning! 17 Happy are you, country whose king is a son of nobles and whose generals eat at a regular hour, for strength and not for drinking! 18** By indolence the timbers sag, and by unlifted hands the roof leaks. 19 They get up meals for fun, and wine makes life merry, and money provides an answer for everything. 20 Do not misspeak a king even mentally, nor a rich man in your bedchambers, for the birds of the air will convey the sound and the winged will carry word.

11* Let your bread go out over the water, for in the long run you will find it. 2 Give share to seven and even to eight, because you do not know what there will be of disaster on the earth. 3* If the clouds get full of a shower they empty it out on the earth; and if a tree falls toward the south, or if toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will be. 4 One who watches the wind will not sow, and one who views the clouds will not reap. 5* As you do not know what is the course of the spirit into bones in the body of the pregnant woman, so you will not know the working of God who works everything. 6 In the morning sow your seed and at evening do not rest your hand, because you do not know which will do right, whether this or that or both of them alike will be good.

7 And the light is sweet, and it does the eyes good to see the sun; 8 for if man lives many years he is to be merry in all of them. But he is to remember the days of darkness will be many. All that is coming will be nonsense. 9 Make merry in your boyhood, young man, and let your heart give you a good time in your days of youth, and go by the bents of your heart and the sights of your eyes; but know that as to all these things God will bring you under judgment, 10* and keep your heart out of the way of remorse and your flesh free from harm; for boyhood and prime are nonsense.

12* And remember your Creator in your time of youth ere the bad times come and years that you will say you do not like draw on; 2 ere the sun and the light and the moon and the stars darken down and the clouds come back after the shower, 3* on the day when the guards of the house tremble and the stalwart men go crooked and the grinders break off work because there have come to be so few of them, and the ladies that look through the window-lattice find themselves in the dark, 4** and doors are shut on the streets while the sound of the mill is low, and one gets up at the notes of the birds, and all the daughters of song go low; 5 withal they are afraid of a high place, and there are terrors on the road, and the almond-tree blossoms, and the grasshopper drags heavily, and the caper-berry balks, because man is going to his eternal house and the wailers are going around in the street; 6 ere the silver cord snaps and the golden bowl smashes and the jar is broken at the spring and the wheel is smashed into the cistern, 7 and the clay goes back to the earth as it was and the spirit back to the God who gave it. 8 Perfect nonsense, says Koheleth; everything is nonsense.

9* And in addition to Koheleth’s being a wise man he taught knowledge to the people besides, and, weighing and probing, edited many proverbs. 10** Koheleth aimed to find interesting language and write straightforward truths.

11* Wise men’s words are like goad-points, and such as are taken up into collections are like driven nails; they are given from one shepherd.

12* And in addition to these things, my son, take warning: of making many books there is no end, and studying much is a fatigue to the flesh. 13* Last word; all is heard: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of man. 14 For God will bring every action under a judgment covering every unknown circumstance, be it good or be it bad.

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