Ecclesiastes 9:1-10

¹For I gave my mind to all this, even to search out all this, that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God, and yet neither his love nor hatred doth any man know. All is before them.

²All cometh to them as to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not; as is the good, so is the sinner; he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

³This is an evil among all things which take place under the sun, that there is one event to all; therefore also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and afterward they go down to the dead.

⁴For who is there that is excepted? With all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

⁵For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing, and there is no more to them any advantage, for their memory is forgotten.

⁶Their love also, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they a portion any more for ever in any thing which taketh place under the sun.

⁷Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a cheerful heart; for long since hath God been pleased with thy works.

⁸Let thy garments be always white, and let not fragrant oil be wanting upon thy head.

⁹Enjoy life with the wife whom thou lovest, all the days of thy vain life which he hath given thee under the sun, all thy vain days. For this is thy portion in life, and in thy labor with which thou weariest thyself under the sun.

¹⁰Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might! For there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the under-world, whither thou goest.