Chapter 9
1 For 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-Elōhīm (The Living Word) [The Many Powered] : no man knows either love or hatred [by] all [that is] before them.
2 All [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.
3 This [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.
4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
5 For 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.
6 Also 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.
7 Go you i way, eat you i bread with joy, and drink you i wine with a merry heart; for God-Elōhīm (The Living Word) [The Many Powered] now accepts you i works.
8 Let you i garments be always white; and let you i head lack no ointment.
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom you i love all the days of the life of you i vanity, which he has given you i under the sun, all the days of you i vanity: for that [is] you i portion in [this] life, and in you i labour which you i take under the sun.
10 Whatsoever you i hand finds to do, do [it] with you i might; for [there is] no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, to which you i go.
11 I 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.
12 For 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.
13 This 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:
15 Now 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.
16 Then said I, Wisdom [is] better than strength: nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom [is] despised, and his words are not heard.
17 The words of wise [men are] heard in quiet more than the cry of him that rules among fools.
18 Wisdom [is] better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroys much good.