Though you should crush a fool in a mortar among grain with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.

For riches are not forever: and does the crown endure to every generation?

Evil men understand not justice: but they that seek the LORD understand all things.

He that covers his sins shall not prosper: but whosoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.

A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that makes haste to be rich shall not go unpunished.

To show partiality is not good: because for a piece of bread that man will transgress.

He that hastens to be rich has an evil eye, and considers not that poverty shall come upon him.

He that gives unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hides his eyes shall have many a curse.

A man that flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.

The righteous considers the cause of the poor: but the wicked regards not such knowledge.

A servant will not be corrected by words: for though he understands he will not answer.

Whosoever is partner with a thief hates his own soul: he hears cursing, and reveals it not.

Surely I am more senseless than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.

Add not unto his words, lest he reprove you, and you be found a liar.

Two things have I required of you; deny me not them before I die:

Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse you, and you be found guilty.

There is a generation that curses their father, and does not bless their mother.

There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their filthiness.

The leach has two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:

The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that says not, It is enough.

There are three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:

The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer;

A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turns not away from any;

Give not your strength unto women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings.

It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:

She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

She rises also while it is yet night, and gives food to her household, and a portion to her maidservants.

She perceives that her merchandise is good: her lamp goes not out by night.

She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

She looks well to the ways of her household, and eats not the bread of idleness.

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from where the rivers come, there they return again.

All things are full of weariness; man cannot express it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

And whatsoever my eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor: and this was my reward of all my labor.

For there is a man whose labor is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that has not labored in it shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart takes not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

Yea, better is he than both, who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he has neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labor; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither says he, For whom do I labor, and deprive my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a heavy travail.

For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falls; for he has not another to help him up.

And if one prevails against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them: they also that come after him shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and grasping after the wind.

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.

Be not rash with your mouth, and let not your heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and you upon earth: therefore let your words be few.

When you vow a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools: pay that which you have vowed.

Better is it that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.

Permit not your mouth to cause your flesh to sin; neither say before the angel, that it was an error: why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?

If you see the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of justice and righteousness in a province, marvel not at the matter: for the high official is watched by a higher one; and there are yet higher ones over them.

He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loves abundance, with increase: this is also vanity.

The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.

For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart.

A man to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honor, so that he wants nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him not power to eat of it, but a stranger eats it: this is vanity, and it is an evil affliction.

If a man begets a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, and his soul is not filled with good, and also that he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn birth is better than he.

Moreover he has not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this one has more rest than the other.

Yea, though he lives a thousand years twice over, yet he has seen no good: do not all go to one place?

All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

Be not hasty in your spirit to be angry: for anger rests in the bosom of fools.

Say you not, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for you do not inquire wisely concerning this.

Be not overly righteous; neither make yourself overly wise: why should you destroy yourself?

Be not overly wicked, neither be foolish: why should you die before your time?

It is good that you should take hold of this; yea, also from this withhold not your hand: for he that fears God shall come forth of them all.

For there is not a just man upon earth, that does good, and sins not.

Also take not to heart all words that are spoken; lest you hear your servant curse you:

Which yet my soul seeks, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.

Be not hasty to go out of his presence: stand not for an evil thing; for he does whatsoever pleases him.

For he knows not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he fears not before God.

When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is one who neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes:)

Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labors to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea moreover; though a wise man thinks to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

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.

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.

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.

For man also knows not his time: as the fish 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.

Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.

If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, leave not your post; for yielding pacifies great offences.

If the iron is blunt, and he does not sharpen the edge, then must he use more strength: but wisdom helps one to succeed.

The labor of the foolish wearies every one of them, because he knows not how to go to the city.

Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness!

Curse not the king, no not even in your thought; and curse not the rich in your bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which has wings shall tell the matter.

Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for you know not what evil shall be upon the earth.

He that observes the wind shall not sow; and he that regards the clouds shall not reap.

As you know not what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so you know not the works of God who makes all.

In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening withhold not your hand: for you know not which shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both alike shall be good.

Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw near, when you shall say, I have no pleasure in them;

While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:

Look not upon me, because I am dark, because the sun has darkened me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but my own vineyard have I not kept.

If you know not, O you fairest among women, go your way forth in the footsteps of the flock, and feed your kids beside the shepherds' tents.

A bundle of myrrh is my beloved unto me; he shall lie all night between my breasts.

I charge you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field, that you stir not up, nor awake love, till it pleases.

By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves: I sought him, but I found him not.

I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the squares I will seek him whom my soul loves: I sought him, but I found him not.

It was but a little after I passed by them, when I found him whom my soul loves: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

I charge you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field, that you stir not up, nor awake my love, till it pleases.

They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man has his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.

I sleep, but my heart wakes: it is the voice of my beloved that knocks, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.

I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spoke: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

Your teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, every one bears twins, and there is not one barren among them.

Your navel is like a round goblet, which lacks not blended drink: your belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies.

O that you were as my brother, that nursed at the breasts of my mother! if I should find you outside, I would kiss you; yea, I would not be despised.

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love, until it pleases.

The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib: but Israel does not know, my people do not consider.