Ecclesiastes 7:9-29

⁹Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, For anger in the bosom of fools resteth.

¹⁰Say not thou, 'What was it, That the former days were better than these?' For thou hast not asked wisely of this.

¹¹Wisdom is good with an inheritance, And an advantage it is to those beholding the sun.

¹²For wisdom is a defense, money is a defence, And the advantage of the knowledge of wisdom is, She reviveth her possessors.

¹³See the work of God, For who is able to make straight that which He made crooked?

¹⁴In a day of prosperity be in gladness, And in a day of evil consider. Also this over-against that hath God made, To the intent that man doth not find anything after him.

¹⁵The whole I have considered in the days of my vanity. There is a righteous one perishing in his righteousness, and there is a wrong-doer prolonging himself in his wrong.

¹⁶Be not over-righteous, nor show thyself too wise, why art thou desolate?

¹⁷Do not much wrong, neither be thou a fool, why dost thou die within thy time?

¹⁸It is good that thou dost lay hold on this, and also, from that withdrawest not thy hand, for whoso is fearing God goeth out with them all.

¹⁹The wisdom giveth strength to a wise man, more than wealth the rulers who have been in a city.

²⁰Because there is not a righteous man on earth that doth good and sinneth not.

²¹Also to all the words that they speak give not thy heart, that thou hear not thy servant reviling thee.

²²For many times also hath thy heart known that thou thyself also hast reviled others.

²³All this I have tried by wisdom; I have said, 'I am wise,' and it is far from me.

²⁴Far off is that which hath been, and deep, deep, who doth find it?

²⁵I have turned round, also my heart, to know and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and reason, and to know the wrong of folly, and of foolishness the madness.

²⁶And I am finding more bitter than death, the woman whose heart is nets and snares, her hands are bands; the good before God escapeth from her, but the sinner is captured by her.

²⁷See, this I have found, said the Preacher, one to one, to find out the reason

²⁸(that still my soul had sought, and I had not found), One man, a teacher, I have found, and a woman among all these I have not found.

²⁹See, this alone I have found, that God made man upright, and they — they have sought out many devices.