Ecclesiastes 9:1-7

¹I thought about all those things, and I concluded that God controls what happens to everyone, even those who are wise and those who are righteous. No one knows whether others will love them or whether they will hate them.

²But we know that some time in the future we will all die; it does not matter whether we act righteously or wickedly, whether we are good or whether we are bad, whether we are acceptable for worshiping God or whether we have done things to cause us to be unacceptable; it does not matter if we offer sacrifices to God or if we do not; it does not matter if we do what we have promised God that we will do or if we do not; we all die. The same thing will happen to good people and to sinful people, to those who solemnly promise to do things for God and to those who are afraid to make such promises.

³It seems wrong that the same thing happens to everyone on this earth: Everyone dies EUP. Furthermore, people's inner beings are full of evil. People do foolish things while they are alive, and then they die and join those who are already dead.

⁴While we are alive, we confidently expect that good things will happen to us. We despise dogs, but it is better to be a dog that is alive than to be a majestic lion that is dead.

⁵We who are alive know that some day we will die, but dead people do not know anything. Dead people do not receive any more rewards, and people soon forget them.

⁶While they were alive, they loved some people, they hated some people, they envied some people, but that all ends when they die. They will never again be a part of anything that happens here on the earth.

⁷So I say, be joyful DOU while you eat your food and drink your wine, because that is what God wants you to do.