1898 Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

Ecclesiastes 7

1 Remedies against vanity are, a good name, 2 mortification, 7 patience, 11 wisdom. 23 The difficulty of wisdom.

 7:1 ¶ Better [is] a name than good perfume, And the day of death than the day of birth.

 7:2 ¶ Better to go unto a house of mourning, Than to go unto a house of banqueting, For that is the end of all men, And the living layeth [it] unto his heart.

 7:3 Better [is] sorrow than laughter, For by the sadness of the face the heart becometh better.

 7:4 The heart of the wise [is] in a house of mourning, And the heart of fools in a house of mirth.

 7:5 Better to hear a rebuke of a wise man, Than [for] a man to hear a song of fools,

 7:6 For as the noise of thorns under the pot, So [is] the laughter of a fool, even this [is] vanity.

 7:7 ¶ Surely oppression maketh the wise mad, And a gift destroyeth the heart.

 7:8 Better [is] the latter end of a thing than its beginning, Better [is] the patient of spirit, than the haughty of spirit.

 7:9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, For anger in the bosom of fools resteth.

 7:10 Say not thou, 'What was it, That the former days were better than these?' For thou hast not asked wisely of this.

 7:11 ¶ Wisdom [is] good with an inheritance, And an advantage [it is] to those beholding the sun.

 7:12 For wisdom [is] a defense, money [is] a defence, And the advantage of the knowledge of wisdom [is], She reviveth her possessors.

 7:13 See the work of God, For who is able to make straight that which He made crooked?

 7:14 In a day of prosperity be in gladness, And in a day of evil consider. Also this over-against that hath God made, To the intent that man doth not find anything after him.

 7:15 The whole I have considered in the days of my vanity. There is a righteous one perishing in his righteousness, and there is a wrong-doer prolonging [himself] in his wrong.

 7:16 Be not over-righteous, nor show thyself too wise, why art thou desolate?

 7:17 Do not much wrong, neither be thou a fool, why dost thou die within thy time?

 7:18 [It is] good that thou dost lay hold on this, and also, from that withdrawest not thy hand, for whoso is fearing God goeth out with them all.

 7:19 The wisdom giveth strength to a wise man, more than wealth the rulers who have been in a city.

 7:20 Because there is not a righteous man on earth that doth good and sinneth not.

 7:21 Also to all the words that they speak give not thy heart, that thou hear not thy servant reviling thee.

 7:22 For many times also hath thy heart known that thou thyself also hast reviled others.

 7:23 ¶ All this I have tried by wisdom; I have said, 'I am wise,' and it [is] far from me.

 7:24 Far off [is] that which hath been, and deep, deep, who doth find it?

 7:25 I have turned round, also my heart, to know and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and reason, and to know the wrong of folly, and of foolishness the madness.

 7:26 And I am finding more bitter than death, the woman whose heart [is] nets and snares, her hands [are] bands; the good before God escapeth from her, but the sinner is captured by her.

 7:27 See, this I have found, said the Preacher, one to one, to find out the reason

 7:28 (that still my soul had sought, and I had not found), One man, a teacher, I have found, and a woman among all these I have not found.

 7:29 See, this alone I have found, that God made man upright, and they—they have sought out many devices.