1For 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 knoweth either love or hatred [by] all [that is] before them. 2All things come alike to all: and the same condition is to the iust and to the wicked, to the good and to the pure, and to the polluted, and to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner, he that sweareth, as he that feareth an othe. 3This [is] an evil among all [things] that are done under the sun, that [there is] one event to 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. 4For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5For the liuing knowe that they shall dye, but the dead knowe nothing at all: neither haue they any more a rewarde: for their remembrance is forgotten. 6Also their loue, and their hatred, and their enuie is now perished, and they haue no more portion for euer, in all that is done vnder the sunne. 7Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. 8Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment. 9Reioyce with the wife whom thou hast loued all the dayes of the life of thy vanitie, which God hath giuen thee vnder the sunne all the dayes of thy vanitie: for this is thy portion in the life, and in thy trauaile wherein thou labourest vnder the sunne. 10All that thine hand shall finde to doe, doe it with all thy power: for there is neither worke nor inuention, nor knowledge, nor wisedome in the graue whither thou goest. 11I 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 favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. 12For man also knoweth 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 falleth suddenly upon them. 13I haue also seene this wisedome vnder the sunne, and it is great vnto me. 14A litle citie and fewe men in it, and a great King came against it, and compassed it about, and builded fortes against it. 15And there was founde therein a poore and wise man, and he deliuered the citie by his wisedome: but none remembred this poore man. 16Then said I, Better is wisdome then stregth: yet the wisedome of the poore is despised, and his wordes are not heard. 17The wordes of the wise are more heard in quietnes, then the crye of him that ruleth among fooles. 18Better is wisedome then weapons of warre: but one sinner destroyeth much good.