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ECC EN_UST en_English_ltr Thu Dec 17 2020 21:50:24 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time) tc

Ecclesiastes

1 The following is the written lecture of the Teacher, who was a descendant of David and who ruled as king in Jerusalem. 2 The Teacher said:

Every aspect of human life is as frustratingly temporary and insubstantial

as the fading mist of my breath!

Everything is absolutely vaporous!

3 I want to know whether the never-ending labor of being alive in this world

ever produces any sense of satisfaction or joy in this life

that makes the labor of life worthwhile.

4 One generation of people dies, and another generation is born.

Nonetheless, nothing seems to change.

5 The sun rises every morning and sets each evening.

Then, it hurries back to the eastern horizon,

from which it will predictably rise again.

6 The wind blows southward.

Then, it changes direction and blows northward.

It continuously seems to go around and around,

and yet, it always seems to go where it is supposed to go.

7 All rivers and streams eventually flow into the ocean,

but the ocean is never full.

Instead, all that water will continue to flow ceaselessly

wherever it has always flowed.

8 These repetitive natural processes

only make humanity indescribably tired.

Similarly, no matter how much people have seen in their lives,

they will always want to see more;

no matter how much people have heard in their lives,

they will always want to hear more.

9 Whatever happened in the past will inevitably happen again.

Likewise, whatever people have done in the past, people will inevitably do it again.

Nothing happens that is ever truly new.

10 Now, someone might claim

to have discovered something genuinely novel.

But, in reality, someone discovered it a long time ago,

in times long since past.

11 No one ever remembers the people or the events of the past.

The same will be true of the people and events of the future,

and even of those after that!

12 Now imagine that I, the Teacher, was Solomon, who ruled as the king of Israel in the city of Jerusalem. 13 As Solomon, I resolved within myself to use my intellect and my understanding of the world to study everything that people do during their lives on this earth. I initially discovered that God has employed every human being in the difficult and burdensome job of being alive. 14 Yes, I looked around and observed everything that people do during their lives. Now pay attention! I saw that our lives are as temporary and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath. Humanity's endless labor is often as silly and frustrating as trying to grab a handful of the wind.

15 It is just like people say:

“No one can fix what appears broken,

and no one can count what is not there.”

16 So, I mused to myself, “Now, pay attention! You know that I, Solomon, have become wiser than any other king who has ever reigned in Jerusalem. I have experienced first-hand what it means to be exceptionally wise and intelligent.” 17 Having said this, I resolved to learn more about what it means to be wise, as well as what it means to be stupid and insane, by personal experience. I initially discovered that even these pursuits were as silly and frustrating as trying to grab a handful of the wind.

18 It is like people also say:

“The wiser one gets, the angrier and more depressed they feel;

knowing more about life only makes life hurt more.”

2 Then I said to myself, “Let me experiment. I will try to make myself as happy and satisfied as possible by doing everything that I enjoy. This will enable me to discover whether doing what I enjoy provides me with lasting contentment.” Now pay attention! I concluded that even the joy and satisfaction I experienced from these pleasures were as temporary as the fading mist of my breath. 2 My introspection concluded that giddy laughter is the behavior of crazy people. Likewise, I deduced that merely pursuing what I enjoyed did me no good. 3 So, I thought deeply about the effect that indulging myself with wine or letting myself behave stupidly might have on me. All the while, I remained sober and alert. I thought about this up to the point that I could discern through my experiences the best use of humanity’s short lives on this earth.

4 So, I did as many memorable and impressive things as I could. I ordered slaves to build palaces for my leisure and to till and plant vineyards to produce fruit and wine for my pleasure. 5 I commissioned royal groves of fruit trees in my honor and manicured plants with flowing streams. Into those groves, I ordered that slaves should plant many kinds of fruit-bearing trees. 6 Furthermore, I ordered the construction of irrigation pools and canals that provided water for entire forests of lush growth to honor me. 7 I purchased male and female slaves, and they bore children who were also my slaves in my palace. I also owned more livestock of herd and flock animals than any other previous king in Jerusalem’s history before me. 8 Moreover, I accumulated immense amounts of silver and gold that I obtained from the tributary gifts of kings and the rulers of foreign territories. I owned slaves, both men and women, who sang for me, and I married wives and concubines, who provided me with sexual pleasure.
9 After all my efforts, I had attained more honor, power, and wealth than any king who had ever reigned before me in Jerusalem. (Yet, I continued to think soberly so that I could evaluate all of my work properly.) 10 In all my efforts, I allowed myself to indulge in every desire that I had. Whatever I wanted, I permitted myself to enjoy it. I did this because my difficult projects made part of me happy, and that experience felt like a reward for all my hard work. 11 But then I stopped to think about everything I had accomplished, and all the difficult, stressful work that I had done to accomplish it all. Pay attention! I concluded that both my great effort and everything I achieved were as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath. Once again, my labors had been as silly and frustrating as trying to grab a handful of the wind. Nothing I did provided me with any sense of satisfaction or joy that made the difficulty of life worthwhile.
12 This led me to start thinking about the potential benefits of being wise, alongside those of being crazy or stupid. I did this because, being king, I had more opportunity to investigate these issues successfully than any other human being. 13 And then I recognized that being wise is far more helpful in life than being stupid, just like it is easier to live well when one has a source of light by which to see than when there is only darkness. 14 It is like people say:

A wise person is able to live well and succeed,

just like someone who walks about in the daylight can see where they are going.

A foolish person, however, endangers themselves with their misinformed decisions,

just like someone who walks about in the dark of night cannot see where they are going.

15 This made me say to myself, “I am going to die just as inevitably as stupid people! In this way, all my hard work to become an exceedingly wise person, so that I might live and think well, appears to have made no difference! What was the point?” I reminded myself that even my attempts to become wise and live a longer and more fulfilled life were as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath. 16 After all, no one remembers anyone who dies, whether they lived wisely or stupidly, for very long. After a while, people will forget about both of them. How sad! No matter whether we live wisely or we act like an idiot, everyone will eventually forget about us!
17 Because the job of being a human in this life includes enduring these realities that seemed to me to be burdensome and lamentable, I began to despise being alive. Everything seemed to be as temporary and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath, and as silly and frustrating as trying to grab a handful of the wind. 18 Then I began to despise all the difficult and stressful work that I had labored to do during my life, especially because, after I die, someone else will come to inherit everything that I have earned, acquired, or accomplished with my life. 19 And no one can possibly predict whether my successor will be a wise or a stupid person. Either way, even if he is stupid, he will have the ability to enjoy all the things that I labored so hard and so wisely for in my life to obtain and accomplish. Regardless, even his enjoyment of the outcomes of my hard work will be as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath.
20 As I thought further about all my life's work, I began to feel hopeless and depressed. 21 Partly, I felt this way because it’s possible that someone might labor at his work wisely and expertly, even skillfully, for his entire life. But when he dies, his successor will inherit everything, even though the successor did not do any of the hard work that produced his inheritance! Yet, even these painful realities are as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath. 22 After all, the emotionally and physically difficult labor that people do throughout their lives does not seem to produce anything that is both good and enduring for them. 23 This is because every day of one's life only seems to cause one pain. Furthermore, the work people do during their lives only produces frustrating grief. It is so grievous that, when they ought to be asleep at night, people's minds are so restless and anxious that they cannot rest. Yet, even so, all of this is as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath.
24 So, this is what I have concluded: The best way that people can live is simply to enjoy whatever they have to eat and drink and to allow themselves to find something enjoyable about their work. I have personally experienced that this kind of present-minded joy only comes when God gives it to someone. 25 After all, there is not a single human being who can enjoy the things he has if God does not first give those things to him. 26 God does this by making the people of whom he approves wise, insightfully intelligent, and happy. Conversely, God has decided that whoever disobeys him will work hard only so that they gain wealth that God will take away and give to those of whom he, God, approves. Yet, in truth, even their wealth and hard work are as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath, and as silly and frustrating as trying to grab a handful of the wind.

3 There is a fixed moment at which everything in this life happens, and a determined period for every kind of event that happens during a person’s life:

2 People will give birth, and people will die;

people will plant their crops, and people will reap and harvest those crops.

3 People will kill people, and people will heal people;

people will tear structures down, and people will build structures.

4 People will cry, and people will laugh;

people will grieve, and people will celebrate.

5 People will throw rocks, and people will gather rocks;

people will hug, and people will refuse to hug.

6 People will look for lost things, and people will lose found things;

people will store things, and people will throw things away.

7 People will rip their clothing in grief, and people will sew clothing back together;

people will stay quiet, and people will talk.

8 People will love one another, and people will hate one another;

people will go to war, and people will mediate peace.

9 Again, I want to know whether the never-ending, difficult labor of human life ever produces any sense of satisfaction or joy for hard-working people that makes the difficulty worthwhile.

10 I have observed the job of living in which God has employed every human being to bustle about doing. 11 God makes everything that happens in a person's life beautifully fitted for the moment that God has determined for it. And, at the same time, God enables humanity to perceive that he is at work in their lives. Even so, God does not allow humanity to completely understand everything that God does—from the time that he created this world and began governing it to the point at which he brings all things to an end. 12 In light of this, I confess that the best way for humanity to live is to gratefully celebrate life and to live ethically while one is alive. 13 And, furthermore, whenever a person is able merely to enjoy whatever they have to eat and drink, and to find something gratifying in the work that they do, this is a priceless thing that God has enabled, like a present that he gives to humanity sometimes. 14 I also confess that all of God’s decisions are fixed, enduring, and unchangeable. It is like people say:

No one can improve what God does,

either by addition or subtraction.

15 Current events are not new.

Something like things happening now inevitably already happened in the past.

Likewise, future events will not be new.

Something like the things that will happen in the future are already happening now.

Despite all of this, God is the one who truly understands what every person is trying desperately to understand.

16 However, here is something else that I observed: The very places in society from which people expect rulers to make just, fair, and equitable decisions are frequently places in which rulers make unjust, oppressive, and sinful decisions! 17 When I observed this, I confessed to myself, “God will hold accountable both people who make fair and equitable decisions and those who make unjust, oppressive, and sinful decisions. He will do this because he has determined that there is a determined moment for everything that happens during a person’s life, including God's judgment of the decisions of rulers in those places.”

18 This led me to confess further to myself: “God is governing the world this way because he wants people to clearly understand that they are really no different than animals.” 19 After all, human lives and animal lives end in precisely the same way. People die just like animals die, and they seem to possess the same capacity to die. Because of this, it appears that being human offers no substantial benefit over being an animal. All life is as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath. 20 When people and animals die, people bury both in the ground. Both people and animals are as mortal as if God made them from dirt, and when each dies, their dead bodies become dirt once again. 21 This commonality causes me to wonder whether people are correct in their assumptions about what happens to people when they die. Perhaps, humans ascend to the place in which God lives, and only animals descend into wherever other dead things lie in the ground.
22 So I confess, once again, that the best way for people to live is to allow themselves to enjoy what their hard work produces— even the difficult work itself. This is because God has given each person their work for that day. It is their daily allotment—no more, no less. After all, nobody can really know for sure what will happen to them tomorrow.

4 Next, as I continued to contemplate, I observed all the various ways in which people suffer from oppression during their lives. Now, pay attention! As I watched those people cry, I realized that no one was there to reassure them or advocate for them in their grief. Furthermore, those who oppressed them appeared to possess an unequal amount of power, such that no one was able to help them overcome the grief that they experienced in their suffering. 2 This sad reality made me feel like those people who have already died are much more fortunate than the people who remain alive. 3 Yet, the people whose mothers have not yet given birth to them are even more fortunate than both people currently alive and those people who have already died. Indeed, the unborn have not yet had to experience or witness any of the evil and lamentable actions that humans do during their lives.

4 Then, I observed that people work as hard as they do and strive to be successful only because they are jealous of their friends' lifestyles and possessions. Yet, even their ill-motivated labor is as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath, and as silly and futile as trying to grab a handful of the wind. 5 It is just like people say:

Rather than work hard, foolish people merely relax

with their unproductive hands folded on their laps, ready to eat their meal.

Yet, as they do so, they unwittingly ruin themselves,

as if they were feasting on their own bodies!

6 People also say this:

“Despite appearances, being contented with a simple, peaceful lifestyle is twice as good

as being rich, but living a life of stressful labor—as silly and frustrating as trying to grab a handful of the wind.”

7 I proceeded to contemplate another facet of people’s lives—one that also seemed as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath. 8 I saw someone who lived alone. He appeared to have no family—no children, nor any brothers or sisters lived with him. And, every day, the lonely person labored without stopping. Even though he was very wealthy, he never felt fully satisfied with his lavish life and all the things that he possessed. Then, he asked himself, “Why am I allowing my hard work to deprive me of things that I enjoy?” His attempts to satisfy himself with a lavish lifestyle were as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath. His joyless labor was really the most lamentable part of the difficult job of being alive, in which God has employed humanity.

9 Having a friend is more advantageous than living one’s life alone.

After all, together, two people can experience better outcomes in their hard work.

10 First, if you were to fall down, a friend could help you get up again.

But, if you are alone and you fall down,

you will only experience hardship and pain,

because no one will be there to help you stand up again.

11 Second, if you and a friend were to lie down to sleep in the cold,

you could help one another stay warm.

But if you try to sleep in the cold alone,

of course, you will be cold!

12 Third, if someone stronger than you were to attack you,

he might beat you up by yourself.

However, you and your friend would be able to ward off your attacker together!

Three people could defend themselves even more easily,

just like a rope that someone made from three strands

is harder to rip in half than a rope with one or two strands.

13 It is preferable to be a poor young man who nonetheless acts wisely than to be a king who, despite his age, acts like a fool and refuses to pay attention when people try to give him good advice, as he did when he was younger. 14 I imagine that it is possible for a young man like that to live so successfully that he becomes king—even ruling over the land in which his mother gave birth to him in poverty, so severe that it was like someone tying her up with ropes. 15 But then I imagine all of the people in this young man’s kingdom, who merely go about their lives. The person who will be the successor to the young king is among them. 16 Despite his current popularity with the endless crowds of his subjects, after a few years, future generations will be tired of him, too. So, in the end, even the wise way he lived that led to his success as king is as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath, and as silly and frustrating as trying to grab a handful of the wind.

5 Be mindful of how you behave when you go to worship God at his house. Draw near to him to worship him by listening expectantly. That is far better than offering sacrifices to God in the ways that foolish people do. They are ignorant even of the fact that they are behaving inappropriately in God’s presence! 2 Do not be so quick to say something to God that you speak rashly without thinking about the words you say. Neither should you allow yourself to raise an issue hastily in God’s presence. You ought to remember that this God is the true, uncreated God who rules from heaven, and that you, a mere creature, live here on the dust of the earth. For this reason, you ought to think carefully before you say anything in God’s presence. 3 After all, it is like people say:

“When someone claims to receive secret messages from the gods,

he tends to rush busily about their lives.

And whenever foolish people talk,

they tend to speak in as many words as possible.”

4 For example, if you solemnly promise God that you will offer a sacrifice to him to thank him for something he has or will do for you, you ought to do what you promised quickly. Neither God nor his people suffer foolish people. You should be careful to do whatever you promise God that you will do. 5 It is better to not promise anything to God than to promise to do something and then fail to do it! 6 You should never talk in such a way that, by failing to do what you promise, you begin to sin. It would be shameful if you publicly promised God that you would offer him a sacrifice, only to lie and attempt to justify yourself when God’s priest arrived to collect the sacrificial animal from you. You might foolishly claim that you made a mistake in promising to sacrifice to God. If you were to do that, God would be so frustrated with your so-called promises that he would destroy everything you have worked to accomplish! 7 This is the point: While everyone else is chasing elusive, secret messages from the gods, offering the prolific, manipulative prayers of foolish people, or doing whatever vapid things people do in God’s presence, you ought to live your life fearfully remembering that God is God, and you are not!

8 You may witness powerful people where you live extorting money from impoverished people or corrupting legal systems that are intended to promote just and fair outcomes to their own benefit. You should not be overly surprised about this. Lamentably, this is the way things are. The people who can hold these powerful people accountable merely watch and do nothing. And even these more powerful people are under the authority of someone even higher, who likewise sits around and does nothing to address the injustices. 9 Also, all of these corrupt officials seize the harvests of our fields—even the king enjoys the food that his subjects collect from our farms.

10 Some people believe that only wealth can provide them

with the kind of happy life that they desire.

These people will never think that they have enough money,

nor will any number of possessions that they acquire make them truly happy.

In reality, money is also as fleeting and insubstantial

as the fading mist of my breath.

11 The more wealth that an individual has,

the more people seek to benefit from that individual’s wealth.

So, rich people do not really benefit from their wealth.

It only seems to others that their wealth helps them.

12 Despite popular assumptions, poor, hardworking people often sleep soundly at night,

no matter whether they have a lot of food or only a little to eat.

Ironically, like a person who sleeps poorly because he has eaten too much,

the wealth that rich people believe provides them with a satisfying and happy life

actually makes them so anxious that they are unable to fall asleep.

13 I have observed that money is the cause of another lamentable, gut-wrenching situation that can happen to people during their lives. I have watched someone diligently save all of his substantial income. But, rather than protecting him, his wealth ultimately caused him financial and emotional pain. 14 When his investments unexpectedly failed, he lost his entire savings. He had planned to give this wealth to his son as an inheritance. Yet now, he had nothing left to pass on. 15 And so, that man died in the same condition as when his mother gave birth to him: He began his life naked, possessing no wealth, and so he died in the same way. When he died, that man’s never-ending labor had never produced for him any meaningful sense of satisfaction or joy.
16 Yes, this was the lamentable, gut-wrenching situation that I witnessed: This man brought nothing into the world when his life began, and, when he died, he took nothing with him. And so, it seems that his hard work never enabled him to feel truly satisfied with his life. His difficult, stressful work was like a frustrated attempt to grab a handful of the wind. 17 Moreover, every day of his life, he sat in the dark when he ate his meals—deeply depressed, fatigued from illness, and fuming.
18 Now, pay attention! I have observed how beautiful life can be when people merely enjoy the food and drink that they have and allow themselves to feel some satisfying happiness in their hard work. People can do this only while they are alive, during the brief span of life that God has allotted to them as his gift—no more and no less. 19 God sometimes gives people money and possessions. But only sometimes does he also give them the ability to enjoy what they have. When God does, people accept what God has given them—no more and no less—and are able to enjoy their otherwise difficult and stressful work. This joyful acceptance is something priceless, like a gift from God. 20 By enabling us to accept the good things in our lives joyfully, God focuses our attention on what we enjoy about our lives. This allows us to forget momentarily the reality that, one day, we will inevitably die.

6 Sadly, I have also observed the opposite happen to people during their lives. This lamentable part of life is deeply distressing and difficult to accept. 2 God sometimes makes people so immensely wealthy and well-respected that they have everything that they could want. Yet, sometimes God does not allow these people to enjoy those good things that their wealth provides. Instead, someone outside their family acquires their wealth and enjoys it fully. Yet, even still, money remains as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath. It is gut-wrenching and lamentable that this can happen to people.

3 Someone could, hypothetically, father innumerable children and live an extraordinarily long life. No matter how long his life might be—even if he were to go on living forever—if he never allows himself to enjoy the wonderful parts of his remarkable life, I would consider the life of a baby who dies when it is still in its mother's womb to be more desirable than this man's miserable life. 4 True, this unfortunate baby's life was as fleeting and brief as the fading mist of breath, and it died in the dark of its mother's womb, never having seen the light of the sun. The baby's parents were never able to name their child before it died, so that the child's brief life will be only a sad memory in the future. 5 The stillborn baby did not even live to experience life outside of its mother's womb, under the light of the sun. Yet neither did it have to feel the burden of understanding just how difficult life can be. So, despite how awful its brief life was, the stillborn baby ultimately found more peace and contentment during its life than that miserably successful man. 6 His life would not improve even if, miraculously, that man were to go on living for two thousand years. He, like every human being, only ever endured the painful parts of life, but he never enjoyed the good parts of his remarkable life. Truthfully, the man's life will come to an end just as inevitably as the stillborn baby's, and both of them eventually experience death—just like every human being. 7 It is like people say:

“Everyone works hard merely to satiate their appetites,

but no one ever truly satisfies their deepest and most desperate cravings.”

8 Consider this: Living wisely does not seem any more able than living foolishly to keep a person from suffering and inevitably dying. In the same way, knowing how to conduct oneself wisely and successfully does not seem to substantially lengthen or improve the life of someone who is poor. 9 It is like people also say:

“It is better to enjoy the things that one already has

than to allow one's never-ending, impulsive desire to inform one's decisions.”

10 Before anything happens, God has already declared what it should be. It is evident to everyone that human beings are merely mortal. So, it is pointless to complain to God about the parts of life that we dislike. Humans are not all-powerful or all-knowing, like God is! 11 It sometimes seems as if our complaints about life only produce more words that are as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath. This does not appear to benefit anyone. 12 Certainly, I wonder whether anyone can truly know what he ought to do during his limited lifetime. People live for only a short time, and their lives seem as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of one's breath. Indeed, God has designed human life so that it lasts only briefly, just like a passing shadow. Moreover, God seems to want human beings to be ignorant about what might happen to them tomorrow.

7 An honorable reputation is actually more advantageous to people

than expensive perfume.

Similarly, a person's death is actually a more advantageous moment for people

than the moment when that person's mother gave birth to him.

2 Attending a funeral is actually more advantageous

than attending a celebratory feast.

This is true because everyone will inevitably die.

People should take time to ponder and accept this reality while they are alive.

3 Feeling grief and mourning is actually more advantageous for people

than merely laughing.

This is true because grieving painful experiences may help one

better understand what life is like and accept it.

4 Wise people choose to participate in public ceremonies of mourning

so that they may ponder the fact that they also will inevitably die.

Conversely, foolish people ignore this reality

by only attending celebrations and festive parties.

5 Listening to the criticism of someone who lives wisely is really more advantageous

than listening to the celebratory song of foolish people.

6 This is true because the noisy laughter of foolish people

is as loud and useless as trying to heat food

over an outdoor fire that someone only fuels with thorns.

Although the thorns may loudly pop and sizzle,

they will only produce a little heat

and will never actually heat the food.

In the same way, the loud and happy noise of foolish people

is as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath.

7 Now, the power to abuse someone less powerful than themselves,

can turn even wise people into crazed and foolish people.

In the same way, officials who accept dishonest payment intended to influence their behavior

become unable to do what is right.

8 It is really more beneficial for people for something to conclude

than for it merely to begin.

Similarly, being patient is really more advantageous

than being proud.

9 You should not allow yourself to lose your temper quickly,

because being irascible is characteristic of foolish people.

10 Neither should you complain and wonder why it seems that life in the past was preferable to the present.

Surely, only foolish nostalgia, not wise reflection, causes this kind of comment.

11 Thinking and living wisely is both valuable and useful,

just like receiving an endowment of property or money from a relative who has died.

As such, being wise can provide anyone alive with significant benefits.

12 Their ability to think and act wisely can provide protection for wise people,

just like money can sometimes provide protection for wealthy people.

Nonetheless, knowing how to think and live well has one more benefit than being wealthy:

This kind of wise thinking often prevents people

from doing foolish things that would cause premature death or other undesirable outcomes.

13 Think carefully about what God has done. Certainly, no human being can change those aspects of their lives that they dislike, since God has determined that their lives should be that way.

14 When your life is going well for you, enjoy it!

But when your life is not going the way that you would prefer, stop to consider this:

God is the one who created life and causes

both good things and less desirable things to happen in your life.

God does this so that we do not start thinking

that we can control what happens to us in our lives, as God does.

15 In my lifetime, as fleeting as the fading mist of my breath, I have witnessed two opposite scenarios.

On the one hand, many good people die too young, even though they live justly.

On the other hand, many bad people live long and prosperous lives, even though they live unjustly and wickedly.

16 So, you should not think that you can be so virtuous

that your moral virtue obligates God to give you a long and prosperous life.

Neither should you think that you can become so wise and live so well

that you can avoid anything painful in life.

If you were to think this way, you would only be astonished and devastated when undesirable things happen in your life.

17 You should not live so excessively sinfully

that God becomes angry at you,

and neither should you allow yourself to live foolishly.

If you were to live this way, God would not allow you to live out the rest of your life, but would justly kill you.

18 Your life will go best if you are diligent in remembering to live according to

both parts of my advice to you.

The kind of individual who fearfully recognizes that God is powerfully governing this world and submits to him will demonstrate this by living as both parts of my advice have instructed him.

19 The ability to think and live wisely can reliably guide a wise individual safely through his life. It can do this more effectively than even the ten most powerful officials who govern a city! 20 Humanity needs the protection that comes from thinking and living wisely, because no one who has ever lived has been entirely righteous. No human being has ever done only what is good and right without ever doing anything wrong.
21 Relatedly, you should not pay attention to everything that people say. If you were to do that, you might inadvertently hear people whom you trust publicly demean you. 22 After all, you yourself know very well that you have also publicly demeaned people who trusted you.

23 I used my ability to think and live wisely to analyze all of these realities of life. I stoutly resolved that I would become wise enough to understand all the realities that I have witnessed in my life, about which I have written. Frustratingly, I could not do it. 24 All the present realities that I observed in my life were beyond my comprehension, as if they were too far away for me to see clearly. They were also too complex and incomprehensible for me to understand, as if they were too deep for me to get to the bottom of them. I do not believe that any human being can truly understand all of this. 25 Nevertheless, I shifted my full attention to a larger task. I wanted to study humanity's ability to think and live wisely so exhaustively and scrupulously that I could comprehend the way that God governs everything and the reason that he governs the way he does. I also wanted to study humanity’s propensity to live so foolishly that they openly disobey God, and to live so irrationally that they become fools. 26 This is what I learned:

Foolish thinking is as distressingly painful as one's death.

However, foolishness is even more so!

It is like a seductive and dangerous woman

who ceaselessly attempts to ensnare young men.

Her deepest desire is to trap and deceive people,

as if her very heart were a cage,

and her very hands were iron chains.

Foolish thinking is exactly like such a woman.

Although foolish thinking like that will capture sinful people,

people who live well in God's presence will be able to avoid living that foolishly.

27 So, understand—this is what I, the Teacher, have learned from my investigations:

I carefully considered one thing after another until I could comprehend the way that God governs everything and the reason that he governs the way he does.

28 Despite all my failures, I continued searching,

but I could not find what I was desperate to discover.

I was looking to become wise,

as if the ability to think and live wisely as a single, elusive woman living among a thousand men.

I found all the men, but I never found that woman.

29 So, consider this:

After everything, I have learned only that when God created humanity,

God made them to live justly and equitably.

Despite this, humans have tried to discover innumerable ways

to understand life and attempt to control what happens to them.

8 Wise people are truly unparalleled!

They have the unique ability to solve difficult problems.

Being wise can make people visibly happy

and transform the otherwise grim look of their faces.

2 Now, here is my counsel: God supports the king who represents God and rules with his authority. Because of this divine support, you should pay attention to what the king commands you and comply with his directives. 3 Do not let this king, who has the apparent power of God, intimidate you. If the king should ever mandate that you do something that you find immoral or unjust, you should not comply. Leave immediately! After all, the king has the power to do whatever he wants—including commanding someone to kill you! 4 This is because the king possesses absolute authority, such that none of his subjects could disobey him without risking harm to himself. No one would ever dare to question the king's actions or demand an explanation for what he commands.

5 The king will not harm anyone

who pays attention to what the king commands

and complies with his directives.

In light of this, someone who is wise will need to discern

how to respond to the king's authority with circumspect timing

and appropriate etiquette.

6 They will need to know this because,

although human beings endure all sorts of lamentable realities in life,

in every situation in which people find themselves,

there is always a proper way to do something

and an appropriate moment at which to do it.

7 One of the most lamentable of these realities is that the events of the future are inscrutable to human beings.

After all, no human can foresee the future well enough to tell others about it in advance.

8 God has not empowered anyone to control the wind.

God alone possesses that power.

In a similar way, no one can control when they will die,

just like soldiers cannot decide merely to go home whilst they are fighting a battle.

This is true even for those people who disobey God.

Their sinful attempts to control their own lives apart from God's authority over them

cannot give them mastery over the uncontrollable parts of human life.

9 As I contemplated the kinds of things that happen to people during their lives, I witnessed all these lamentable realities actually happening. I saw that sometimes people like the king possess such power over other human beings that they dominate and harm them.
10 Moreover, I observed the public honor that people gave to wicked people at their funerals after they had died. I had daily witnessed these wicked people going in and out of the sacred places where people worship God, and, ironically, rather than suffering punishment, people in the city praised them for their behavior! Yet, even this, and two other realities, are only temporary, as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath.

11 First, people in power sometimes administer justice against evil actions too slowly.

For this reason, many people feel emboldened to plan

and commit evil actions without fear of negative consequences.

12 Second, sometimes sinful people commit a hundred crimes, and yet they live an unjustly long life.

Despite this, I am confident that the lives of people who understand that God is powerful and just and good—those who fearfully submit themselves to God in trusting obedience—will turn out well in the end.

13 I am also confident of the inverse: The lives of people who willingly disobey God in their sin will not go well. Just like shadows in the setting sun only appear to grow and stretch on forever—in the same way, the current prosperity of the lives of evil people is an illusion. After all, they feel no fear when they think of God's power and justice!

14 So, yes. It is only a temporary reality of this life that the undesirable and painful things that bad people deserve sometimes happen to good and faithful people, and the best parts of life, the kind of lives that good people deserve, seem to happen to bad people. I confess that, despite current appearances, these realities are also as temporary as the fleeting mist of my fading breath.
15 In light of all this, living life joyfully is worth celebrating! The best that anyone can do during one's life is simply to eat and drink and be happy. For as long as this God graciously decides a person should live, this kind of simple joy and acceptance will remain with him like a faithful companion, no matter what difficult and stressful labor he must do.
16 I then resolved within myself to try to become as wise as I could. I wanted to observe the difficult parts of people's lives so that I could understand them, even though they can make people so anxious and distressed that they cannot sleep either at night or during the day. 17 When I did this, I thought about everything that God has done. Then, I realized that he has made humanity so that they can never fully comprehend everything that God does in their lives. Although people will never stop trying to understand, they will never succeed. Even if wise people claim that they understand it all, they really cannot.

9 Truly, I thought deeply about all these realities so that I could study them, including this one. Ultimately, it is God who controls what happens to everyone and what the difficult labor that they do produces. This is especially true for wise people and those who live fairly and justly. However, people never know what will happen to them in the future. Even for wise and righteous people, both undesirable and enjoyable things may happen to them, but they never know which is going to happen. 2 Furthermore, everyone dies eventually, no matter who they are—

whether they lived righteously or wickedly;

whether they lived well and were ceremonially clean and able to worship God, or they were ceremonially unclean and unable to worship God;

whether they offered sacrifices to God or refrained from offering sacrifices.

Good people and sinful people will both eventually die alike,

whether they did what they promised God that they would do, or they were afraid to make such promises.

None of this matters. Everyone eventually dies.

3 Yes, this is a truly lamentable part of being alive on this earth. Eventually, everyone dies, no matter who they are. But, even more so, people live lamentably during the short time that they are alive. It seems that everyone is fully intent on disobeying God by living like evil people. They also live so foolishly that they live like crazy people! And then, after they live such poor lives, they die just like everyone else!

4 Yet, as long as someone is alive,

one will have the opportunity to enjoy the few good things that people experience while alive.

Because of this, it is better to be alive than to be dead.

Even though people think little of dogs in comparison to lions,

the loathsome dog that is alive is better off than the proud, majestic lion that is dead.

5 This is because people who are still alive are generally aware that they will die someday,

but dead people know nothing!

Also, dead people have lost their opportunity to enjoy the good things that people can experience during their lives.

Furthermore, people will eventually forget about them!

6 While they are alive, people love other people.

They hate people, and they envy people.

However, even the things and people they felt these things toward died a long time ago.

Those who have died will never again have the chance

to enjoy anything good that happens during people's lives.

7 So, go and live your life! Allow yourself to be happy when you eat your food and to enjoy the experience of drinking wine. Remember: God wants you to do this! 8 Wear your best, most celebratory clothing all the time, and keep yourself groomed as if you were going to a party! 9 Enjoy the experience of living your fleeting life with your beloved wife. God has given you whatever fleeting time you continue to breathe, though it is as brief as the fading mist of my breath. God has apportioned this time for you to enjoy with your wife, even while you labor at your difficult and stressful work. 10 Whatever you can do, do it with all your energy. You should do this because you will die eventually. When you die, and your family buries you in the ground, you will no longer be able to accomplish anything meaningful or understand why life happens the way it does—or know or understand anything, for that matter!
11 Once again, I witnessed this reality about life:

The person who runs fastest does not always win the race,

nor do the strongest, most courageous soldiers always win the battle,

nor do the wisest people always have enough food to eat,

nor do the most insightful people always become financially prosperous,

nor are the people who know the most always the most successful.

No human being can control or predict what will happen to them.

12 Even more so, no one can predict when he will die.

People catch fish in deadly nets,

and people fowl birds in traps.

Similarly, every human being will experience their inevitable death

just like those fish and birds,

like a deadly trap that seizes them unexpectedly.

13 I also observed this truth about wisdom in this life, and it made a lasting emotional impact on me: 14 There was once a small town, and only a few people lived there. Then, a powerful and renowned king and his army attacked that town and besieged it on all sides. The army built massive ramps against the walls so that they could climb up and conquer the town. 15 Now, in that town, there was a man who was poor but wise nonetheless. Remarkably, the man thought wisely and counseled actions that rescued the town from the attacks of the powerful king and his army. However, in a little while, nobody remembered the poor man who rescued them. 16 So I concluded that it is truly more beneficial for people to be wise than merely being strong. Nonetheless, it is also true that no one values the wise thinking of poor people, nor will they ever pay attention to what they say.

17 People will always listen to a wise person who speaks softly more attentively

than they will to a king who merely shouts at a crowd of foolish people.

18 Being wise is actually a more effective and powerful instrument

than the weapons that soldiers use to fight wars.

Even so, the decisions and actions of a single sinful person have the potential to ruin

the good things that many other people have accomplished.

10 If only a few little flies die in a vat of expensive perfume,

the entire batch can become rancid and stinking.

Similarly, one foolish decision can have a disastrous effect

on a lifetime of wise and honorable decisions.

2 A person's wise thinking and behavior can protect them,

like the capable right hand of a warrior that grips his sword.

Conversely, people who think and live foolishly are constantly vulnerable

to the disastrous outcomes of their own poor decision-making.

3 Whenever foolish people travel on public roads,

they lack any common sense.

They themselves make their stupidity obvious

to everyone who sees them.

4 Should someone powerful become enraged with you,

do not abandon your responsibilities with him.

Remember! Calm and composed responses can mitigate

another's fury at serious offenses.

5 I have also observed another lamentable situation in my life:

Sometimes people in authority unintentionally make public mistakes.

6 They mistakenly promote many foolish people to important positions of authority,

while, at the same time, they assign wealthy people to unimportant positions.

7 I have witnessed these powerful people promote slaves so that they have the public honor of riding on horses,

like rich people usually do.

And yet, they force important officials to walk in the dirt,

like slaves usually do.

8 If someone digs a hole in the ground, he might fall into it.

If someone tears down a wall, a snake living inside the wall might bite him.

9 If someone quarries rocks, the loosened rocks might fall and injure him.

If someone chops wood, the split logs might wound him.

10 If a person's axehead is dull,

and he has not sharpened its edges,

then, in order to successfully chop something with the axe,

he will have to exert more force.

This all demonstrates that being wise is the secret

to succeeding in using one's tools for their intended purpose.

11 If a snake bites someone before he can calm it,

then an ability to calm snakes is of no use to him.

12 People will favorably honor wise people

because of the wise way in which they speak.

However, the things that foolish people say

will inevitably harm them,

as if their own lips were to swallow them.

13 When foolish people begin to talk,

they merely say stupid things;

but by the time they are finished,

they have said things that are insanely and disasterously ridiculous.

14 Nonetheless, the foolish person will continue talking more and more.

Nobody knows what might happen in the future.

After all, there is no human being who can inform someone

about what will happen to them tomorrow!

15 Foolish people become very exhausted by the work that they do,

with the result that they are even unable to find the road to their town.

16 It is terrible for the people of a nation

when their ruler acts like a naive boy,

and when their leaders use their power

to eat exceptionally large, celebratory meals at inappropriate times.

17 But it is wonderful for a nation

when its ruler comes from the proper family,

and when its leaders host large, celebratory meals

only at the appropriate moments—

eating and drinking in a dignified manner and not in drunken revelry.

18 It is like people say:

“Lazy homeowners will neglect their roofs

to the point that they sag and collapse;

the idle lifestyle of house owners

will eventually cause rainwater to leak into the house.“

19 Eating food can make people so happy that they laugh,

and drinking wine can make a moment of one's life joyful.

However, it seems as if people who have wealth can solve all of their problems.

20 So, you should never disparage the king.

Do not even think about it!

Neither should you speak ill of wealthy people,

even when you are alone in your bedroom.

After all, even in these private spaces, it is always possible that a little winged bird

will overhear what you are saying and tell everyone what you said to yourself.

11 So, make your beer in the traditional, slow method.

If you do, you will eventually produce a product worth your patient efforts.

2 However, be prudent enough to prepare

a couple of vats of beer, and not merely one.

You should do this because you never know

what disasters might happen that could ruin your hard work.

3 It will rain only when the clouds are ready to do so.

Similarly, a fallen tree will remain

in the place where it happened to topple over—

wherever that might be.

4 For this reason, someone might anxiously watch for changes in the wind,

waiting for the optimal moment to plant,

when a strong gust will not blow away the newly planted seeds.

If they do, they will never plant their crops.

Likewise, someone might anxiously watch the clouds,

waiting for the optimal moment to harvest,

when a heavy rainfall will not ruin the ripened crops.

If they do, they will never harvest their crops.

5 Now, no one fully understands from whence the wind comes or whence it goes, nor does anyone fully understand how human bodies form in a pregnant woman’s womb. In this way, human beings cannot fully understand what God is doing in our lives. After all, God is in charge of everything, and he is the one who makes everything happen.

6 In light of this, be diligent!

Plant your crops while it is still morning,

and do not stop planting until you are done—

even through the evening.

You should do this because you do not know which crops will grow better.

It is possible that one batch of crops might grow better than the other,

or perhaps all of your crops will grow well.

7 Remember:

Although the lamentable realities of life

are as difficult to endure as the blinding light of the sun,

it is a pleasant and wonderful thing to be alive,

just like the warm and life-giving light of the sun is good for people.

8 So, in light of this, should anyone live for many years,

that person should enjoy each one of them.

However, he should not allow himself to forget

either the difficult moments of his life in the past

or the reality that he will inevitably grow old and die.

He will undoubtedly have many of these moments,

as difficult and confusing as the pitch dark of night.

However, they—like everything else that will happen in our lives—

will be as temporary and fleeting as the fading mist of my breath.

9 So, you, young man—let yourself be happy while you are still young. Allow yourself to enjoy being alive before you grow old. Pursue the things that you love to do, but never forget that our God will judge you one day. He will discern how well you have lived your life, whether you have enjoyed well your time or squandered it. 10 Moreover, do not allow yourself to feel overly angry or depressed about life, and do not pay attention to the pains that you experience in your body. Remember: Being a young man who lacks gray hair on his head is an experience that is as fleeting as the fading mist of my breath!

12 Therefore, while you are still young,

be certain to live your life without forgetting the God who gave you your life.

Do this before your old age makes your life difficult, painful, and saddening.

At that time, you might say to yourself,

“I no longer enjoy being alive.”

2 Do this before the light from the sun, moon, and stars fades out,

and the clouds completely disappear, having given all their rain.

3 At that time, the men who stand guard at the entrances of houses will shake in utter fear.

The men who have a reputation for strength in battle will cower.

The women who mill grain will cease their task, because too few of them remain.

People looking out from their windows will have somber expressions on their faces.

4 Everybody will lock the front doors of their houses.

At that time, the sound of people grinding grain with millstones will be too faint to hear.

People will awaken in the morning to the crowing of predatory birds.

People will writhe in grief as they publicly sing mournful songs.

5 People will even fear birds as they circle up high.

It will be too dangerous to walk the roads.

The flowers of almond trees will become white as they ripen and rot.

Grasshoppers will drag themselves on the ground, unable to jump any longer.

The medicinal properties of the caperberry will fail to heal.

(This is all happening because people are dying.

Their surviving relatives bury their dead bodies,

and people circle the streets as they grieve in public.)

6 Remember God now, before your life ends—

just like an expensive silver chain that eventually snaps

or a golden bowl that inevitably falls and breaks apart;

like a ceramic jug that shatters when people use it to draw water from a well,

or the water wheel of a reservoir that slowly decays.

7 At that time, our corpses will decay and become dirt again,

and our spirits will return to God, who first gave us our spirits.

8 So, once again, the Teacher said: “Every aspect of human life is as frustratingly temporary and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath! Everything is absolutely vaporous!”

9 So, not only did people recognize that this Teacher was a very wise man, but he also taught his fellow Israelites many truths. He contemplated and pondered many things during his life, and, in the process, wrote down many of the proverbs that he had collected. 10 As he taught and wrote, the Teacher labored so that he would only use the most suitable words, which might also be pleasant and enjoyable to hear. In the end, he succeeded, and the things that he wrote have proven to be reliable and true.

11 Wise people teach us and write to us in a way that provokes a change in one's thinking and lifestyle, just like the sharp tools that people use to spur large animals to move where they ought to. The inherited, written collections of the things that wise people have taught are as sharp and enduring as nails that someone firmly drives into a piece of wood. Ultimately, God is the one who gives humanity these wise insights into life. 12 However, my child, understand that you will discover nothing profitable or true by reading or listening to the teachings of so-called wise people other than those that your own people have passed on to you. After all, people will never stop writing books, and attempting to study them all will only exhaust you.

13 So, this is the last and most fundamental of the Teacher's lectures,

now that you've heard everything he has to teach you:

Fearfully know, trust, and submit yourself to God,

so that you live your life the way he asks you to.

Do this because this kind of relationship with God

is truly what it means to be human!

14 This is because, in the end, God will justly prosecute

everything that humans have ever done,

even things that people have done secretly—

good decisions and evil decisions alike.