Ecclesiastes 7:9-29

⁹Do not be quick to anger in your spirit, for anger resides in the hearts of fools.

¹⁰Do not say, “Why were the days of old better than these?” For it is not because of wisdom that you ask this question.

¹¹Wisdom, like an inheritance, is good. It benefits those who see the sun.

¹²For wisdom provides protection as money can provide protection, but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to whoever has it.

¹³Consider the deeds of God: Who can straighten out anything he has made crooked?

¹⁴When times are good, live happily in that good, but when times are bad, consider this: God has allowed both to exist side by side. For this reason, no one will find out anything that is coming after him.

¹⁵I have seen many things in my meaningless days. There are righteous people who perish in spite of their righteousness, and there are wicked people who live a long life in spite of their evil.

¹⁶Do not be self-righteous, wise in your own eyes. Why should you destroy yourself?

¹⁷Do not be too wicked or foolish. Why should you die before your time?

¹⁸It is good that you should take hold of this wisdom, and that you should not let go of righteousness. For the person who fears God will meet all his obligations.

¹⁹Wisdom is powerful in the wise man, more than ten rulers in a city.

²⁰There is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

²¹Do not listen to every word that is spoken, because you might hear your servant curse you.

²²Similarly, you know yourself that in your own heart you have often cursed others.

²³All this have I proven by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was more than I could be.

²⁴Wisdom is far off and very deep. Who can find it?

²⁵I turned my heart to learn and examine and seek wisdom and the explanations of reality, and to understand that evil is stupid and that folly is madness.

²⁶I found that more bitter than death is any woman whose heart is full of snares and nets, and whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God will escape from her, but the sinner will be taken by her.

²⁷“Consider what I have discovered,” says the Teacher. “I have been adding one discovery to another in order to find an explanation of reality.

²⁸This is what I am still looking for, but I have not found it. I did find one righteous man among a thousand, but a woman among all those I did not find.

²⁹I have discovered only this: That God created humanity upright, but they have gone away looking for many difficulties.”