1Certainly I applied my heart unto all of this that I might declare all of this: that the righteous and the wise and their works [are] in the hand of God; no man knows either love or hatred by all that [passes] before them. 2All [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 does not sacrifice: as [unto] the good so [unto] the sinner; [and unto] him that swears as [unto him] that fears the oath. 3This [is] an evil among all [things] that are done under the sun, that [there is] one event unto all; and also that 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 [still] among the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5For the living know that they shall die, but the dead do not know any thing; neither do they have any more reward, for their memory is placed into oblivion. 6Even their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished; neither have they any more a portion in the age in any [thing] that is done under the sun. 7Go, eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a joyful heart that thy works might be acceptable unto God. 8Thy garments shall always be white, and thy head shall never lack ointment. 9Live joyfully with the wife whom thou dost love all the days which thou art to live in this lake of vanity, which are given unto thee; all the days of thy vanity under the sun: for that [is] thy portion in [this] life, and in thy labour in which thou dost work under the sun. 10Whatever thy hand finds to do, do [it] with [all] thy might, for [there is] no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, where 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 prudence, nor yet grace to men of eloquence; but time and chance happens to them all. 12For man also does not know 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 the evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them. 13I have also seen this wisdom under the sun, which is important unto me: 14[There was] a little city and few men within it; and a great king came against it and besieged it and built great bulwarks against it; 15now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no one remembered that same poor man. 16Then I said, Wisdom [is] better than strength: even though the poor man's knowledge [is] despised, and his words are not heard. 17The words of wise [men are] heard in quiet more than the cry of him that rules among fools. 18Wisdom [is] better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.: