LEB ECC Chapter 7

People Generally Do Not Know What is Best for Them

• 7 A good name is better than precious ointment,
  • and the day of death is better than the day of one’s birth.
• 2 Better to go to the house of mourning
  • than to go to the house of feasting,
• for death is the end of every person,
  • and the living should take it to his heart.
• 3 Sorrow is better than laughter,
  • for by sadness of countenance the heart is made good.
• 4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
  • but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
• 5 Better to listen to the rebuke of the wise
  • than for a man to listen to the song of fools.
• 6 Like the sound of thorns under a pot,
  • so also the laughter of fools.
• This also is vanity!

Wisdom—Although Vulnerable—is Beneficial

• 7 Surely oppression makes a fool of the wise,
  • and a bribe corrupts the heart.
• 8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning;
  • better to be slow to anger than hot-headed .[fn]
• 9 Do not be quick in your spirit to anger,
  • for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.
• 10 Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?”
  • For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
• 11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance;
  • it benefits the living .[fn]
• 12 For wisdom offers protection like money offers protection .[fn]
  • But knowledge has an advantage—wisdom restores life to its possessor.

Humans Must Accept God’s Will and Make the Best of It

• 13 Consider the work of God.
  • For who is able to make straight what he made crooked?
• 14 In the day of prosperity, rejoice!
  • But in the day of adversity, consider!
• For God made one in place of another
  • so that mortals cannot find out what will happen in the future .[fn]

The Law of Retribution Does Not Always Work—but It Does Sometimes

• 15 I have seen all these things in my vain life:
  • Sometimes a righteous man perishes in spite of his righteousness,
    • and sometimes a wicked man lives a long life in spite of his evil.
• 16 Do not be excessively[fn] righteous,
  • and do not act excessively wise, lest you destroy yourself.
• 17 Do not act excessively wicked,
  • and do not be a fool, lest you die before your time.
• 18 It is good to take hold of the one and also must not let go of the other;
  • for whoever fears God will hold both of them secure.

Wisdom is Valuable, but No One is Completely Righteous

• 19 Wisdom gives more strength to the wise
  • than ten rulers who are in the city.
• 20 Surely there is no one righteous on the earth
  • who continually does good and never sins.
• 21 Do not pay attention to everything people say,
  • lest you hear your own servant curse you.
• 22 For your heart knows
  • that you also have cursed others many times.

Absolute Wisdom is Unattainable

23 All this I have tested with wisdom. I said, “I will be wise!” but ⌊it was beyond my grasp⌋.[fn] 24 ⌊Whatever is—it is far beyond comprehension⌋.[fn] Who can discover it?

25 I set my mind to try to seek wisdom and the plan, and to know that wickedness is foolishness and that folly is delusion. 26 I myself found that more bitter than death is the woman who is a trap, whose heart is a snare, and whose hands are bonds. The one who pleases God escapes from her, but the sinner is caught by her. 27 “Look! I found this,” said the Teacher,[fn] “while trying to find how the plan fits together. 28 What my heart sought, I did not find. Although I found one righteous man among one thousand, I did not find one upright woman among all these. 29 Look! This alone I found: God made mankind upright, but they have devised many schemes.”