Ecclesiastes 10:1-20

¹Flies that die in it, lose the sweetness of the ointment. A little folly at some time is more precious than wisdom and glory.

²The heart of a wise man is in his right side; and the heart of a fool is in his left side.

³But also a fool going in the way, when he is unwise, guesseth all men fools.

⁴If the spirit of him, that hath power, goeth upon thee, forsake thou not thy place; for curing, or caring, or taking heed, shall make greatest sins to cease.

⁵An evil there is, that I saw under the sun, and going out as by error from the face of the prince;

⁶a fool set in high dignity, and rich men sit beneath.

⁷I saw servants on horses, and princes as servants going on the earth.

⁸He that diggeth a ditch, shall fall into it; and an adder shall bite him, that destroyeth a hedge.

⁹He that beareth over stones, shall be tormented in those; and he that cutteth trees, shall be wounded of those or them.

¹⁰If iron is folded again, and it is not as before, but is made blunt, it shall be made sharp with much travail; and wisdom shall follow after busyness.

¹¹If a serpent biteth, it biteth in silence; he that backbiteth privily, hath nothing less than it.

¹²The words of the mouth of a wise man be grace; and the lips of an unwise man shall cast him down.

¹³The beginning of his words is folly; and the last thing of his mouth is the worst error.

¹⁴A fool multiplieth words; a man knoweth not, what was before him, and who may show to him that, that shall come after him?

¹⁵The travail of fools shall torment them, that know not how to go into the city.

¹⁶Land, woe to thee, whose king is a child, and whose princes eat early.

¹⁷Blessed is the land, whose king is noble; and whose princes eat in their time, to sustain their kind, and not to lechery.

¹⁸The highness of houses shall be made low in sloths; and the house shall drop rain in the feebleness of hands.

¹⁹In laughing, they dispose bread and wine, that they drinking eat largely; and all things obey to money.

²⁰In thy thought backbite thou not the king, and in the private of thy bed, curse thou not a rich man; for the birds of heaven shall bear thy voice, and he that hath pens or wings, shall tell the sentence.