There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth {hoarded} by its owner to his harm.

That wealth was lost in a bad venture. Although he has borne a child, {he has nothing to leave to him}.

Look! I have discovered what is good and fitting: to eat and to drink and {to enjoy} all [the fruit of] the toil with which one toils under the sun during the number of the days of his life that God gives to him--for this [is] his lot.

This indeed is a gift of God: everyone to whom God gives wealth and possessions, he also empowers him {to enjoy them}, to accept his lot, and to rejoice in [the fruit of] his toil.

God gives a man wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires; yet God does not enable him to enjoy it--instead someone else ends up enjoying it. This [is] vanity--indeed, it [is] a grievous ill!

So do the wise [really] have an advantage over fools? {Can the poor [really] gain anything by knowing how to act in front of others}?

{Better to be content with what your eyes see than for your soul to constantly crave more}. This also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

A good name [is] better than precious ointment, and the day of death [is better] than the day of one's birth.

Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for [death is] the end of every person, and the living should take [it] to his heart.

Better to listen to [the] rebuke of [the] wise than for a man to listen to [the] song of fools.

The end of a matter [is] better than its beginning; {better to be slow to anger than hot-headed}.

Do not be quick in your spirit to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.

Do not say, "Why were the former days better than these?" For [it is] not from wisdom [that] you ask this.

{For wisdom offers protection like money offers protection}. But knowledge [has] an advantage--wisdom restores life to its possessor.

Consider the work of God. For who is able to make straight what he made crooked?

In the day of prosperity, rejoice! But in the day of adversity, consider! For God made one in place of another so that mortals cannot find out what will happen {in the future}.

Do not be excessively righteous, and do not act excessively wise, lest you destroy yourself.

Do not act excessively wicked, and do not be a fool, lest you die before your time.

[It is] good to take hold of the one and also must not let go of the other; for whoever fears God will hold both of them secure.

Wisdom gives more strength to the wise than ten rulers who are in the city.

Do not pay attention to everything people say, lest you hear your own servant curse you.

I set my mind to try to seek wisdom and the plan, and to know that wickedness [is] foolishness and that folly [is] delusion.

"Look! I found this," said the Teacher, "while trying to find how the plan fits together.

Keep [the] command of [the] king {because of your oath to God}.

Do not be terrified of his presence! Go at once and do not delay when a matter [is] unpleasant, for he can do anything that he desires.

Since the word of the king [is] supreme, no one can say to him, "What are you doing?"

Just as no one can control the wind to restrain the wind, so also no one can control the day of his death. Just as no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not deliver the wicked.

I saw all this as I applied my heart to all the deeds done under the sun: {sometimes those in authority harm others}.

Because sentence against an evil deed is not carried out quickly, the heart of {humans} fills up within them to do evil.

So I recommend enjoyment. For there [is] nothing better for man under the sun than to eat and to drink and to rejoice. This will accompany him in his toil the days of his life that God gives to him under the sun.

I applied my mind to know wisdom and to understand the business that is done on earth--how neither day nor night one's eyes see sleep.

Then I saw all the work of God--man [is] not able to discover the work that is done under the sun. Although man may toil in seeking, he cannot find it. Even if a wise man claims [that he] knows it, he cannot find it.

So all this I laid to my heart, and I concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, [are] in the hand of God. So no one knows anything that will [come] to them, whether [it will be] love or hatred.

The same fate [comes] to everyone: to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the wicked, to the clean and to the unclean, to those who sacrifice and to those who do not sacrifice. As [with] the good [man], so also to the sinner; [as with] those who swear an oath, so [also] those who fear oaths.

This [is] the {injustice} that is done under the sun: the same fate [comes] to everyone. Also the hearts of {humans} are full [of] evil; delusion [is] in their hearts during their lives, and then they die.

Whoever is joined to all the living has hope. After all, even a live dog is better than a dead lion!

For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything. They no longer have a reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.

Whatever your hand finds to do--do [it] with [all] your might; for in Sheol--where you are going--no one works, plans, knows, or thinks about anything.

I looked again and saw under the sun that the race [does] not [belong] to the swift, the battle [does] not [belong] to the mighty, food [does] not [belong] to the wise, wealth [does] not [belong] to the intelligent, and success [does] not [belong] to the skillful, for time and chance befalls all of them.

I have also seen this [example of] wisdom under the sun, and it [seemed] great to me.

The heart of the wise [inclines] to his right, but the heart of the fool [inclines] to his left.

If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post, for calmness can undo great offenses.

The fool {talks too much}, for no one knows what will be. Who can tell anyone what will happen {in the future}?

The fool is so worn out by a hard day's work {he cannot even find his way home at night}.

Woe to you, O land, when your king is a youth and your princes feast in the morning.

Blessed are you, O land, when your king is a son of nobility and your princes feast at the proper time-- to gain strength and not to get drunk.

Do not curse the king even in your thoughts, and do not curse the rich even in your own bedroom, for a bird of the sky may carry your voice; a winged messenger may repeat your words.

Divide your share in seven or in eight, for you do not know what disaster will happen on the earth.

When the clouds are full, they empty rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or whether it falls to the north, the place where the tree falls--there it will be.

Just as you do not know how the path of the wind [goes], nor how the bones [of a fetus] form in a mother's womb, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

Sow your seed in the morning, and do not let your hands rest in the evening, for you do not know what will prosper-- whether this or that, or whether both of them alike will succeed.

The light is sweet, and it [is] pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

When the doors on the street are shut, when the sound of the grinding mill is low; one rises up to the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low.

They are afraid of heights, and terrors [are] on the road. The almond tree blossoms, and the grasshopper draws itself along, and desire fails because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about in the streets.

And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.

The Teacher sought to find delightful words, and he wrote what is upright--truthful words.

My son, be careful {about anything beyond these things}. For the writing of books is endless, and too much study {is wearisome}.

Draw me after you, let us run! May the king bring me into his chambers! Let us be joyful and let us rejoice in you; let us extol your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you!

Do not gaze at me because I am black, because the sun has stared [at] me. The sons of my mother were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, [but] my own "vineyard" I did not keep.

Tell me, [you] whom my {heart} loves, where do you pasture your flock, where do your sheep lie down at the noon? {For why should I be like} one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions?

If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow {the tracks} of the flock, and pasture your little lambs beside the tents of the shepherds.

To a mare among the chariots of Pharaoh, I compare you, my beloved.

My beloved [is] to me {a pouch} of myrrh, he spends the night between my breasts.

My beloved [is] to me a cluster of blossoms of henna in the vineyards of En Gedi.

As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so [is] my beloved among the young men. In his shade {I sat down with delight}, and his fruit [was] sweet to my palate.

He brought me to the house of the wine, and his intention [was] love toward me.

I adjure you, {O maidens of Jerusalem}, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!

My beloved answered and said to me, "{Arise}, my beloved! {Come, my beauty}!

{My beloved belongs to me and I belong to him}; he pastures his flock among the lilies.

Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved! {Be like} a gazelle or {young stag} on the cleft mountains.

{Scarcely had I passed} by them when I found him whom my {heart} loves. I held him and I would not let him go until I brought him to the house of my mother, into the bedroom chamber of she who conceived me.

I adjure you, {O maidens of Jerusalem}, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!

All of them {wield swords}; [they are] {trained in warfare}, each with his sword at his thigh [to guard] {against terror} in the night.

Come out and look, {O maidens of Zion}, at {King Solomon}, at the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the joy of his heart!

Your two breasts [are] like two fawns, twins of a gazelle that feed among the lilies.

Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of the myrrh, to the hill of the frankincense.

Awake, O north wind! Come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden! Let its fragrances waft forth! Let my beloved come to his garden, let him eat his choice fruit!

I have come to my garden, my sister bride, I have gathered my myrrh with my spice, I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk! Eat, O friends! {Drink and become drunk [with] love}!

I [was] asleep but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved knocking! "Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one! For my head is full of dew, {my hair drenched from the moist night air}."

I myself arose to open to my beloved; my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh upon the handles of the bolt.

I opened myself to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone; my heart sank when he turned away. I sought him, but I did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me.

My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the garden bed of the spice, to pasture his flock and to gather lilies in the garden.

{I belong to my beloved and he belongs to me}; he pastures his flock among the lilies.

I went down to the orchard of the walnut trees to look at the blossoms of the valley, to see [whether] the vine have sprouted, [whether] the pomegranates have blossomed.

Turn, turn, O Shulammite! Turn, turn so that we may look upon you! Why do you look upon the Shulammite as [at] a dance of the two armies?

Your two breasts [are] like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.

{I belong to my beloved}, {and he desires me}!

Come, my beloved, let us {go out to the countryside}; let us spend the night in the villages.

Let us rise early [to go] to the vineyards; let us see whether the vine has budded, [whether] the grape blossom has opened, and [whether] the pomegranates {are in bloom}; there I will give my love to you.

{I would surely bring you} to the house of my mother, {who would surely teach me}; {I would give you spiced wine to drink}, the {sweet wine} of my pomegranates.

I adjure you, {O maidens of Jerusalem}, do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!

Who [is] this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother {conceived you}; there she who was in labor gave birth to you.

Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house {for love}, he would be utterly scorned.

{We have a little sister}, {and she does not yet have any breasts}. What should we do for our sister {on the day when she is betrothed}?

{Solomon had a vineyard} at Baal-hamon; {he entrusted his vineyard to the keepers}; {people paid a thousand silver [pieces] for its fruit}.

{My own "vineyard" belongs to me}; the "thousand" are for you, O Solomon, {and "two hundred" for those who tend its fruit}.

O you who dwell in the garden, [my] companions are listening to your voice. Let me hear [it]!

An ox knows its owner and a donkey the manger of its master. Israel does not know; my people do not understand.

Why do you want to be beaten again? You continue [in] rebellion. [The] whole of [the] head [is] sick, and [the] whole of [the] heart [is] faint.

From the sole of the foot and up to [the] head there is no health in it; bruise and sore and bleeding wound have not been cleansed, and they have not been bound up and not softened with the oil.