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The Blue Letter Bible

Ecclesiastes 7 :: Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)

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Wisdom and Folly Contrasted

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:1 -

Better is a good name than good oil,

And better is the day of one’s death than the day of one’s birth.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:2 -

Better to go to a house of mourning

Than to go to a house of feasting

Because [fn]that is the end of all mankind,

And the living puts this in his heart.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:3 -

Better is vexation than laughter,

For when a face is sad a heart may be merry.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:4 -

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,

While the heart of fools is in the house of gladness.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:5 -

Better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man

Than for one to listen to the song of fools.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:6 -

For as the crackling sound of thorn bushes under a pot,

So is the laughter of the fool;

And this too is vanity.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:7 -

For oppression gives a wise man over to madness,

And a bribe [fn]destroys the heart.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:8 -

Better is the end of a matter than its beginning;

Better is patience of spirit than haughtiness of spirit.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:9 -

Do not be [fn]eager in your spirit to be vexed,

For vexation rests in the bosom of fools.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:10 -

Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?”

For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:11 -

Wisdom along with an inheritance is good

And an advantage to those who see the sun.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:12 -

For wisdom is a shadow of protection as money is a shadow of protection,

And the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its masters.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:13 -

See the work of God,

For who is able to straighten what He has bent?

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:14 -

In the day when there is good be of good cheer,

But in the day when there is evil see

God has made the one as well as the other

So that man will not find out anything that will be after him.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:15 -

I have seen everything during my days of vanity; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:16 - Do not be excessively righteous, and do not be overly wise. Why should you make yourself desolate?
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:17 - Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be a simpleminded fool. Why should you die before your time?
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:18 - It is good that you seize one thing and also not [fn]let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with [fn]both of them.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:19 -

Wisdom strengthens a wise man more than ten men with power who are in a city.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:20 - Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:21 - Also, do not give your heart to all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your slave cursing you.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:22 - For your heart also knows that you likewise have many times cursed others.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:23 -

I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me.

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:24 - What has been is far away and exceedingly deep. Who can find it?
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:25 - I turned my heart to know, to explore, and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the wickedness of foolishness and the simpleminded folly of madness.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:26 - And I found more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is good before God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:27 -

“See, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “adding one thing to another to find an explanation,

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:28 - which my soul still seeks but has not found. I have found one man out of a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 7:29 - “See, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”
LSB Footnotes
Death
Lit perishes
Lit hasty in your spirit
Lit rest your hand
Lit all
LSB

Copyright ©2021 by The Lockman Foundation

All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc.

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For more information on this translation, see the LSB Preface.

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Ecclesiastes Chapter 7 — Additional Translations: