[[Ecclesiastes 8|<< Ecclesiastes 8]] | [[Ecclesiastes|Ecclesiastes]] | [[Ecclesiastes 10|Ecclesiastes 10 >>]] ### Ecclesiastes 9 1 FOR all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, _are_ in the hand of God: no man knows either love or hatred _by_ all _that_ _is_ before them. ^1 2 All _things_ _come_ alike to all: _there_ _is_ one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrifices, and to him that sacrifices not: as _is_ the good, so _is_ the sinner; _and_ he that swears, as _he_ that fears an oath. ^2 3 This _is_ an evil among all _things_ that are done under the sun, that _there_ _is_ one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness _is_ in their heart while they live, and after that _they_ _go_ to the dead. ^3 4 ¶ For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. ^4 5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. ^5 6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any _thing_ that is done under the sun. ^6 7 ¶ Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepts thy works. ^7 8 Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment. ^8 9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he has given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that _is_ thy portion in _this_ life, and in thy labor which thou takest under the sun. ^9 10 Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do _it_ with thy might; for _there_ _is_ no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. ^10 11 ¶ I 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 favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all. ^11 12 For man also knows not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so _are_ the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them. ^12 13 ¶ This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it _seemed_ great unto me: ^13 14 _There_ _was_ a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it: ^14 15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. ^15 16 Then said I, Wisdom _is_ better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom _is_ despised, and his words are not heard. ^16 17 The words of wise _men_ _are_ heard in quiet more than the cry of him that rules among fools. ^17 18 Wisdom _is_ better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroys much good. ^18