Ecclesiastes Chapters

Vanity of Vanities

1 | •  ¹Here are the words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

²All is meaningless—says the Teacher—meaningless, meaningless!

³What profit is there for a man in all his work for which he toils under the sun?

⁴A generation goes, a generation comes, and the earth remains forever. ⁵The sun rises, the sun sets, hastening towards the place where it again rises. ⁶Blowing to the south, turning to the north, the wind goes round and round, and after all its rounds, it has to blow again.

⁷All rivers go to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the rivers come from, they return again.

⁸All words become weary, and speech ends, but the eye has never seen enough, and neither has the ear heard too much.

⁹What has happened before will happen again, and what has been done before will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

¹⁰If they say to you, “See, it’s new!” know that it has already been centuries earlier.

¹¹There is no remembrance of ancient people, and those to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.

Even Wisdom Is Meaningless

¹²I, the Teacher, have been king of Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³I set my heart on studying and examining critically all that is done under heaven.

¹⁴It is a burdensome task that God has given to humans! I have seen everything that is done under the sun, but all is meaningless: it is chasing the wind. ¹⁵What is bent cannot be straightened; what is not will not come to be.

¹⁶I thought, “See, I have increased and promoted wisdom more than anyone who ruled Jerusalem before me, and I have experienced both wisdom and knowledge to the full.” ¹⁷I set my heart on comparing wisdom with foolishness and stupidity, and I discovered that this also is chasing the wind.

¹⁸For the wiser you are, the more worries you have, and the more you learn, the more you suffer.

Empty Pleasures

2 | •  ¹I said in my heart, “I will try pleasure! Taste happiness!” But I found that was useless. ²Laughter is foolishness! As for pleasure, what good is it? ³I thought of cheering my body with wine while my heart searched for wisdom. So I gave myself to folly to find out what would be good for man to do under the sun throughout his life.

⁴I did great things: I built houses and planted vineyards. ⁵I made gardens and parks and planted fruit trees. ⁶I constructed reservoirs to irrigate the orchards. ⁷I bought slaves and servants and had slaves born in my household. I had flocks and herds in abundance more than anyone before me in Jerusalem. ⁸I acquired silver and gold—the wealth of kings and nations. I had choirmasters and singers, and besides that, what most delighted men. ⁹I became great, surpassing all my predecessors in Jerusalem without losing wisdom. ¹⁰I refused myself nothing that my eyes desired, nor did I deprive my heart of any pleasure. I enjoyed all I undertook, which was my work reward.

¹¹Then I considered all I had achieved by my work and all the toil it had entailed and found that it was all meaningless and chasing the wind. There is no profit under the sun.

¹²I then decided to compare wisdom with folly and madness, and I thought, “What will my successor as king do?” (We know what he did!)

¹³I understood that wisdom is more profitable than folly, just as light is better than darkness:

¹⁴The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in darkness.

But it dawned on me that the same fate overtakes them both. ¹⁵And I thought, “If the fool's fate will be mine as well, what did my wisdom profit me?” I thought to myself that, too, is meaningless. ¹⁶There is no more remembrance of the wise man than of the fool: both will be forgotten in the coming days. Why is a wise man’s death like that of a fool?

¹⁷So I hated life, seeing the wrong in everything done under the sun: all is meaningless and chasing the wind. ¹⁸I hated all I had labored for under the sun, which I must leave to my successor. ¹⁹Who knows whether he will be foolish or wise? Yet he will be the master of all ²⁰ I have achieved through my own efforts and wisdom, which, too, is meaningless.

And I began to despair over all my labor under the sun. ²¹For here was a man who toiled in all wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must leave all to someone who has not worked for it. This is meaningless and a great misfortune. ²²For what profit is there for a man in all his work and heart-searching under the sun? ²³All his days bring sorrow; his work, grief; he hasn’t, moreover, peaceful rest at night: that is meaningless.

²⁴There is nothing better for man than to eat, drink, and find satisfaction in his work. I understood that this, too, comes from the hand of God. ²⁵For without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

²⁶He gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to the one who pleases him, while to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up what will be given to another who pleases God: this, too, is meaningless and chasing the wind.

A Time For Everything

3 | •  ¹There is a given time for everything and a time for every happening under heaven:

²A time for giving birth, a time for dying, a time for planting, a time for uprooting.

³A time for killing, a time for healing, a time for knocking down, a time for building.

⁴A time for tears, a time for laughter, a time for mourning, a time for dancing.

⁵A time for throwing stones, a time for gathering stones, a time for embracing, a time to refrain from embracing.

⁶A time for searching, a time for losing, a time for keeping, a time for throwing away.

⁷A time for tearing, a time for sewing, a time to be silent, and a time to speak.

⁸A time for loving, a time for hating, a time for war, a time for peace.

⁹What profit is there for a man from all his toils?

¹⁰Finally, I considered the task God gave to humans. ¹¹He made everything fitting in its time, but he also set eternity in their hearts, although they cannot embrace God's work from the beginning to the end.

¹²I know that there is nothing better for him to do than to seek pleasure and well-being during his life. ¹³To eat, drink, and find satisfaction in his work is a gift from God.

¹⁴I know that everything God does remains forever; there is nothing to add or subtract from it. Yet God has ordained that humans fear him.

¹⁵What has happened comes again; what is now has already been; God recovers what has gone. ¹⁶I have also seen under the sun, instead of justice, wickedness, and in the place of the just, the wicked. ¹⁷And I said to myself, “God will judge the just and the wicked, for there is a time for everything and a judgment for every deed.”

•  ¹⁸I also thought about how God wants to test them and let them see that they are animals.

¹⁹The destiny of man and animal is identical: death for one or the other. ²⁰Both have the same spirit; man has no superiority over animals, for all pass away like the wind. Both go to the same place; both come from dust and return to dust.

²¹Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the beast descends earthward? ²²I understood that the best man can do is to be happy in what he does, for that is his lot. For who will take him to see the beyond?

4 | ¹I also considered how much oppression there is under the sun: the tears of the oppressed and no one to console them, the violence of the oppressors and no one to hold them back.

²More fortunate are the dead for being dead than the living who have to live, ³and even more fortunate than both is the one not yet born who has not seen the abuses under the sun.

⁴I saw that all that is done and succeeds results from rivalry with the neighbor: all is meaningless and chasing the wind.

⁵The fool folds his arms and eats his meat. ⁶Yet better half a fistful of rest than fistfuls of toil and chasing the wind.

⁷I saw another senseless thing under the sun: ⁸a man alone, without son or brother, working endlessly, his greed never satisfied with wealth: “For whom do I work and deprive myself of pleasure?” This, too, is nonsense and a mistaken investment.

⁹Happier two than one alone, for their work brings a higher wage. ¹⁰ When one falls, the other lifts up his companion. Unfortunately, he is alone and has no one to lift him up! ¹¹Moreover, it’s warmer with two in bed; how can one alone be warm? An aggressor might overcome ¹² one person, but two can easily oppose him; the triple-stranded thread is not easily broken.

¹³Better a poor and wise youth than a fool of an old king who shuns advice. ¹⁴He might even pass from prison to the throne, though born poor in his kingdom. ¹⁵I saw all who lived under the sun follow the youth who replaced the latter, and there was no end to the people who sided with him. ¹⁶And yet those who will come after will not be satisfied. This, too, makes no sense; it’s nothing but chasing the wind.

Wise Sayings

¹⁷Watch your step when you go to God’s House; it’s a better offering to listen than to present sacrifices, as do the fools, for they do not know the evil they do.

5 | ¹Don’t be impulsive and hasty with words in the presence of God, for God is in heaven, and you are on earth. For that reason, let your words be few.

²For dreams come from over-anxiety and foolish talk from too many words.

³When you vow to God, waste no time fulfilling it, for he takes no pleasure in fools. Do what you vowed.

⁴Better not to make a vow than to fail to fulfill it.

⁵Don’t let your speech cause you to sin and then tell God’s minister it was a mistake. Why anger God by what you say and destroy the work of your hands? From much dreaming and many words comes emptiness. ⁶So fear God.

⁷If you see the poor oppressed, rights and justice denied in the province, do not be surprised, for over a high-placed official, a higher one watches, and over both of these, a still higher one watches. ⁸The produce of the land benefits everyone, and the king serves the land.

⁹Whoever loves money will not be satisfied with money. Whoever loves wealth hasn’t sufficient income. This is senseless.

¹⁰When good things are abundant, there is an abundance of consumers. What profit is there for the owner except to look on?

¹¹Sweet is the laborer's sleep, whether he eats little or much. But the rich man who has had his fill cannot sleep.

¹² I found a great evil under the sun, the rich man who kept his wealth to his own harm. ¹³A mistaken investment and these riches are lost; a son is born, but nothing can leave him.

¹⁴Naked he came from his mother’s womb, he returns as he came—naked. Nothing of the fruit of his toil is he able to take with him.

¹⁵That is a grievous evil: As he came, so he goes. So, what did he gain from chasing the wind? ¹⁶Why did he eat in darkness amidst great sorrow, suffering, and vexation?

¹⁷This is what I saw as most fitting for man: to eat, drink, and be happy in all the work he does under the sun during the days God grants him; this is his reward. ¹⁸And when God gives a man riches and property with the possibility of enjoying them and being happy in his work, this is a gift from God. ¹⁹As long as God keeps him occupied in the gladness of his heart, he is not concerned about how long he will live.

6 | ¹I saw another very evil thing under the sun: a man has riches, property, and honor and lacks nothing he could desire. ² God does not permit him to benefit from them; a stranger enjoys them. That is nonsense and a grievous hurt.

³What if a man had a hundred sons and lived many years without tasting happiness and even a tomb! More fortunate, I would say, the one untimely-born. ⁴For he came in vain and goes to darkness, and in darkness will his name be hidden. ⁵He has not seen the sun and has not known it. Finally, he has had more rest than that man. ⁶Even if he should have lived a thousand years twice over without tasting happiness, would not both go to the same place?

⁷Man works to fill his stomach, yet he is not satisfied.

⁸Has the wise man more than the fool? What is the benefit of wisdom to one overwhelmed by poverty?

⁹What the eye sees seems better than what the heart desires. That, too, is senseless and chasing the wind.

¹⁰Everything has already been evaluated. One knows what man is and cannot dispute with the one stronger than himself.

¹¹Many words, much emptiness; what does it profit? ¹²Who knows what a good way of life for man is during the days of his meaningless life, which passes like a shadow? Who will let him know what will happen after he has gone?

7 | ¹An honorable name is better than perfumed oil. Better the day of death than the day of birth.

²Better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting, for to this end all come, and let the living take this to heart: ³Sorrow is better than laughter; a joyful heart may be concealed behind sad looks. ⁴The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, while the fool's heart is in the house of feasting.

⁵Better to heed the rebuke of the wise than to listen to a fool’s song. ⁶The fool's laugh is Like the crackling of thorns under a pot.

⁷Corruption makes a wise man mad; bribes blind his heart.

⁸Better to reach the end than to begin. Better patience than a haughty spirit.

⁹Don’t be easily discouraged, for discouragement resides in the womb of fools.

¹⁰Do not ask why former times were better than the present. It is not wisdom that prompts such a question.

¹¹Wisdom is as precious as an inheritance; it is a blessing for those on whom the sun shines. ¹²If wisdom protects you, money will do the same. This is the benefit of acquiring wisdom: it makes its owner live.

¹³See the work of God. Who can straighten what he has bent? ¹⁴Be happy in the day of prosperity, and in the day of sorrow, reflect: ¹⁵ God has given both one and the other, and many may discover what comes later.

¹⁶Do not be over-righteous or excessively wise, lest you harm yourself. ¹⁷Do not be too wicked or stupid, lest you die before your time.

¹⁸It is well to hold to one and not to loosen your grasp on the other. The God-fearing man copes with both.

¹⁹Wisdom strengthens the wise, and more than ten rulers are in the city. ²⁰No righteous man on earth always does good and never sins.

²¹Don’t take seriously all that you hear, lest you hear your servant speak ill of you. ²²You know well how many times you have spoken ill of others!

²³After critically examining all this, I said, “I will be wise!” ²⁴But how far it is from me! It is more remote than anything deep, very deep. Who could discover it?

²⁵I set myself in all earnestness to know, study, and pursue wisdom and reason; so I saw that wickedness is folly, and foolishness is stupidity.

•  ²⁶I find a woman more bitter than death. She is a pitfall; her heart is a snare, and her arms are chains. He who pleases God will escape from her, but the sinner will be caught.

²⁷See what I discovered—says the Teacher—after considering them one after another, anxious to understand. ²⁸I have been searching but have not yet found; for a man among a thousand I may find, but not a woman among all of them.

²⁹I discovered that God made man simple, but they get lost in their many thoughts.

8 | ¹Who is like the wise man? Who else can solve a problem? A man’s wisdom lights up his expression—his stern look is changed.

²Obey the king's command because of the oath before God, and ³ Don’t be eager to ignore it. Do not stubbornly support a wrong cause, for he will do what he pleases. ⁴The king’s word holds. Who will say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵Whoever obeys a royal precept avoids trouble. The wise man knows the time and the judgment—⁶the time to act and the value of everything.

This misfortune weighs heavily on man: ⁷he does not know what will happen. Who can tell him what will happen? ⁸No one controls the wind or holds back the day of death. A struggle is useless, and not even wickedness saves the author. ⁹I have observed this and set myself to consider everything done under the sun when man is given the power of harming another.

•  ¹⁰So, I have seen the wicked buried, and people come from the holy place to honor them, forgetting how they acted. This, too, is futile.

¹¹Evil designs fill the human heart because the sentence against wrongdoing is not passed at once. ¹²The sinner may do wrong a hundred times and yet survive.

(I know well that there will be happiness for the God-fearing man because he fears God, ¹³but there will be no happiness for the wicked; and because he doesn’t fear God, he will pass like a shadow, and his days will not last.)

¹⁴Another kind of nonsense is found in humans' actions on earth: the righteous are treated as the wicked deserve, and the wicked as the righteous deserve. This, too, is meaningless.

¹⁵So I praise joy, since, for man, there is no happiness under the sun other than eating, drinking, and taking pleasure in his work throughout the life God gives him under the sun. ¹⁶When I set out to get wisdom and considered the human condition on earth, by day or by night when people sleep and are not conscious, ¹⁷I saw that about God’s work, as a whole, no man can discover what the work is that goes on under the sun; though he tires himself searching, he will not find out. And if the wise man claims to know, he does not.

9 | ¹I have pondered on all this, and now I understand that the just, the wise, and all they do are in the hand of God. Man does not know whether hate or love is in store for him. ²What is most senseless is that the same destiny awaits all: the virtuous and the wicked, the clean and the unclean, the one who sacrifices and the one who doesn’t. It is the same for the good man and the sinner, for the one who swears and refrains from swearing.

³The same fate comes to all: this is the evil that corrupts all that is done under the sun. This is why man’s heart is full of evil and foolishness during his life, and his end is with the dead. ⁴As long as he shares with the living, there is hope, and a live dog is better than a dead lion. ⁵The living, at least, know they will die, but the dead know nothing; neither do they await anything; the memory of them has vanished. ⁶Their love, hate, and jealousy have already perished, and they no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.

⁷Go, eat your bread with gladness, and drink your wine joyfully; this is God’s approval of your work. ⁸Dress in white and perfume your head.

⁹Enjoy life with the wife you love, all the days of the meaningless life given to you by God under the sun, for this is your lot in life and in the work you do under the sun.

¹⁰Fulfill your projects while you are able, for, among the dead, where you are going, there is no work, no planning, no knowledge, no wisdom.

¹¹I saw something else under the sun: the race is not won by the swift, nor the battle by the strong, nor does bread go to the wise nor riches to the intelligent; favor is not for the learned, for fortune and misfortune overtake them all.

¹²For man is not aware of his time: just as fish are caught in the treacherous net and sparrows trapped in the snare, man, like them, is caught by misfortune suddenly befalling him.

More Proverbs

¹³I have considered something else very grave under the sun. ¹⁴There was a small town with few inhabitants. A king set out to attack it, laid siege to it, and built great siege works around it. ¹⁵But a poverty-stricken wise man was found, who by his wisdom saved the town. No one, however, remembered the poor man. ¹⁶So I said, “Better wisdom than heroism,” but the wisdom of the poor is despised, and his words are not heeded.

¹⁷The words of the wise spoken calmly are heard above the shouts of a ruler of fools.

¹⁸Wisdom is better than weapons; one sinner spoils much happiness.

10 | ¹As dead flies spoil a jar of perfumed oil, a little folly weighs heavier than wisdom and honor.

²The heart of the wise man leads him to the right; the heart of the fool leads him to the left.

³When the fool is on the road, he goes the wrong way, and to all he meets, he says, “There goes another fool.”

⁴If the ruler gets angry with you, do not stir, for composure prevents many grave mistakes.

⁵An evil I discovered under the sun, an error of rulers: ⁶folly is exalted to the heights while rich men take the lowest places. ⁷I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes going on foot like slaves.

⁸He who digs a pit may fall into it, and a serpent may bite him who pierces a wall;

⁹he who quarries stones may be hurt by them, and he who splits logs may be wounded;

¹⁰if the ax becomes dull, and the blade is not sharpened, you must strike stronger blows, but the advance of wisdom is success. ¹¹But if the serpent doesn’t allow itself to be charmed and bites, what did the charmer gain?

¹²The words from the lips of a wise man are gracious, but the lips of a fool bring about his own ruin. ¹³Folly marks the beginning of his speech and pure madness, the end. ¹⁴Let him multiply his words! (Man does not know what will happen, and who will let him know what comes after him?) ¹⁵Any work wearies the fool; he doesn’t even know how to go to town.

¹⁶Alas for you, O land! If your ruler is a young man whose princes feast in the morning. ¹⁷Happy the land where the king is nobly born and the princes eat at appropriate times, as fitting to people, rather than being drunk.

¹⁸Laziness in man causes a ceiling to sag, and because of a man’s slackness, a house leaks.

¹⁹Man prepares a meal for pleasure; wine gives cheer to life, while money is the answer to everything.

²⁰Do not curse the king in your mind or the rich in your bedroom, for the birds of the air may tell what you say and winged carriers will make it known.

11 | ¹Cast your bread in the water, for you will find it again after a given time.

²Share with seven or even eight, for you never know what misfortune may strike the earth.

³When clouds are heavy, rain falls on the earth; and when a tree falls, facing south or north, there, in that place, it will lie.

⁴He who watches the wind will not sow, and he who watches the clouds will not reap.

⁵Just as you do not know how the spirit pervades the members in the mother’s womb, neither will you understand the work of God, creator of all things.

⁶Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle until the evening, for you don’t know whether one will succeed. What if both prove to be good?

So Man Goes Forward To His Eternal Home

•  ⁷Light is pleasant and good for the eyes to see the sun. ⁸If a man lives for many years, let him rejoice in them all, thinking that dark days will be many and all that comes after will be meaningless.

⁹Rejoice, young man, in your youth and direct well your heart when you are young; follow your desires and achieve your ambitions but recall that God will take account of all you do.

¹⁰Drive sorrow from your heart and pain from your flesh, for youth and dark hair will not last.

12 | ¹Be mindful of your Creator when you are young before the time of sorrow comes when you have to say, “This gives me no pleasure,”

²and before the sun, moon, and stars withdraw their light before the clouds gather again after the rain.

³On the day when the guardians of the house tremble, when sturdy men are bowed and those at the mill stop working because they are too few, when it grows dim for those looking through the windows, ⁴and the doors are shut, and the noise of the mill grows faint, the sparrow stops chirping, and the bird-song is silenced, ⁵when one fears the slopes and to walk is frightening; yet the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper is fat, and the caperberry bears fruit that serves no purpose,

because man goes forward to his eternal home, and mourners gather in the street,

⁶even before the silver chain is snapped or the golden globe is shattered,

before the pitcher is broken at the fountain or the wheel at the mill,

⁷before the dust returns to the earth from which it came, the spirit returns to God who gave it.

⁸Meaningless! meaningless! The teacher says all is meaningless!

⁹In addition to being a wise man, Qoheleth taught the people; he listened, studied, and classified many proverbs.

¹⁰Qoheleth tried to write in a pleasant style and express frankly words of truth.

¹¹The words of the wise are spurs; their collected sayings are like a fence whose many pegs have been assembled by one shepherd.

¹²Beware, my son, of searching beyond. Writing many books would be useless, and intense study wearies the body.

¹³Conclusion: fear God and obey his precepts, for man depends entirely on this. ¹⁴God brings every deed to judgment, all that is hidden, good or bad.