Ecclesiastes 9:5-16

⁵For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything, neither do they have any more a reward; for their memory is forgotten.

⁶Also their love, their hatred, and their envy has perished long ago; neither do they any longer have a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.

⁷Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.

⁸Let your garments be always white, and don’t let your head lack oil.

⁹Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity, for that is your portion in life, and in your labour in which you labour under the sun.

¹⁰Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.

¹¹I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.

¹²For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.

¹³I have also seen wisdom under the sun in this way, and it seemed great to me.

¹⁴There was a little city, and few men within it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it.

¹⁵Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.

¹⁶Then I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.