Ecclesiastes 7
1A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death better than the day of one’s birth. 2It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart. 3Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the face the heart is made good. 4The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. 5It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. 6For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity. 7Surely extortion makes the wise man foolish; and a bribe destroys the understanding. 8Better is the end of a thing than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. 9Don’t be hasty in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools. 10Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not ask wisely about this.
11Wisdom is as good as an inheritance. Yes, it is more excellent for those who see the sun. 12For wisdom is a defense, even as money is a defense; but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
13Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight which he has made crooked? 14In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; yes, God has made the one side by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out anything after him.
15All this I have seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing. 16Don’t be overly righteous, neither make yourself overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17Don’t be too wicked, neither be foolish. Why should you die before your time? 18It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also don’t withdraw your hand from that; for he who fears God will come out of them all. 19Wisdom is a strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. 20Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and doesn’t sin. 21Also don’t take heed to all words that are spoken, lest you hear your servant curse you; 22for often your own heart knows that you yourself have likewise cursed others. 23All this I have proved in wisdom. I said, “I will be wise;” but it was far from me. 24That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out? 25I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity, and that foolishness is madness.
26I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.
27“Behold, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “to one another, to find an explanation 28which my soul still seeks, but I have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all those. 29Behold, I have only found this: that God made mankind upright; but they search for many inventions.”
Ecclesiastes 8
1Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.
2I say, “Keep the king’s command!” because of the oath to God. 3Don’t be hasty to go out of his presence. Don’t persist in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him, 4for the king’s word is supreme. Who can say to him, “What are you doing?” 5Whoever keeps the commandment shall not come to harm, and his wise heart will know the time and procedure. 6For there is a time and procedure for every purpose, although the misery of man is heavy on him. 7For he doesn’t know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be? 8There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.
9All this I have seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt. 10So I saw the wicked buried. Indeed they came also from holiness. They went and were forgotten in the city where they did this. This also is vanity. 11Because 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. 12Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him. 13But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow, because he doesn’t fear God.
14There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat, to drink, and to be joyful: for that will accompany him in his labor all the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.
16When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (even though eyes see no sleep day or night), 17then I saw all the work of God, that man can’t find out the work that is done under the sun, because however much a man labors to seek it out, yet he won’t find it. Yes even though a wise man thinks he can comprehend it, he won’t be able to find it.
Ecclesiastes 9
1For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them. 2All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn’t sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears an oath. 3This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event to all. Yes 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 who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything, neither do they have any more a reward; for their memory is forgotten. 6Also their love, their hatred, and their envy has perished long ago; neither do they any longer have a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.
7Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works. 8Let your garments be always white, and don’t let your head lack oil. 9Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity, for that is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you labor under the sun. 10Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.
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 favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. 12For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.
13I have also seen wisdom under the sun in this way, and it seemed great to me. 14There was a little city, and few men within it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. 15Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. 16Then I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard. 17The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the cry of him who rules among fools. 18Wisdom is better than weapons of war; but one sinner destroys much good.
Ecclesiastes 10
1Dead flies cause the oil of the perfumer to produce an evil odor;
so does a little folly outweigh wisdom and honor.
2A wise man’s heart is at his right hand,
but a fool’s heart at his left.
3Yes also when the fool walks by the way, his understanding fails him, and he says to everyone that he is a fool.
4If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, don’t leave your place; for gentleness lays great offenses to rest.
5There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, the sort of error which proceeds from the ruler. 6Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in a low place. 7I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking like servants on the earth. 8He who digs a pit may fall into it; and whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. 9Whoever carves out stones may be injured by them. Whoever splits wood may be endangered by it. 10If the ax is blunt, and one doesn’t sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength; but skill brings success.
11If the snake bites before it is charmed, then is there no profit for the charmer’s tongue. 12The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but a fool is swallowed by his own lips. 13The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end of his talk is mischievous madness. 14A fool also multiplies words. Man doesn’t know what will be; and that which will be after him, who can tell him? 15The labor of fools wearies every one of them; for he doesn’t know how to go to the city.
16Woe to you, land, when your king is a child,
and your princes eat in the morning!
17Happy are you, land, when your king is the son of nobles,
and your princes eat in due season,
for strength, and not for drunkenness!
18By slothfulness the roof sinks in;
and through idleness of the hands the house leaks.
19A feast is made for laughter,
and wine makes the life glad;
and money is the answer for all things.
20Don’t curse the king, no, not in your thoughts;
and don’t curse the rich in your bedroom,
for a bird of the sky may carry your voice,
and that which has wings may tell the matter.
Ecclesiastes 11
1Cast your bread on the waters;
for you shall find it after many days.
2Give a portion to seven, yes, even to eight;
for you don’t know what evil will be on the earth.
3If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth;
and if a tree falls toward the south, or toward the north,
in the place where the tree falls, there shall it be.
4He who observes the wind won’t sow;
and he who regards the clouds won’t reap.
5As you don’t know what is the way of the wind,
nor how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child;
even so you don’t know the work of God who does all.
6In the morning sow your seed,
and in the evening don’t withhold your hand;
for you don’t know which will prosper, whether this or that,
or whether they both will be equally good.
7Truly the light is sweet,
and it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to see the sun.
8Yes, if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all;
but let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many.
All that comes is vanity.
9Rejoice, young man, in your youth,
and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth,
and walk in the ways of your heart,
and in the sight of your eyes;
but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
10Therefore remove sorrow from your heart,
and put away evil from your flesh;
for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
Ecclesiastes 12
1Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth,
before the evil days come, and the years draw near,
when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them;”
2Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened,
and the clouds return after the rain;
3in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble,
and the strong men shall bow themselves,
and the grinders cease because they are few,
and those who look out of the windows are darkened,
4and the doors shall be shut in the street;
when the sound of the grinding is low,
and one shall rise up at the voice of a bird,
and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;
5yes, they shall be afraid of heights,
and terrors will be on the way;
and the almond tree shall blossom,
and the grasshopper shall be a burden,
and desire shall fail;
because man goes to his everlasting home,
and the mourners go about the streets;
6before the silver cord is severed,
or the golden bowl is broken,
or the pitcher is broken at the spring,
or the wheel broken at the cistern,
7and the dust returns to the earth as it was,
and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
8“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher.
“All is vanity!”
9Further, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered, sought out, and set in order many proverbs. 10The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written blamelessly, words of truth. 11The words of the wise are like goads; and like nails well fastened are words from the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. 12Furthermore, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
13This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. 14For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.
Song of Solomon 1
1The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s.
Beloved
2Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth;
for your love is better than wine.
3Your oils have a pleasing fragrance.
Your name is oil poured out,
therefore the virgins love you.
Friends
Beloved
4Take me away with you.
Let’s hurry.
The king has brought me into his rooms.
We will be glad and rejoice in you.
We will praise your love more than wine!
They are right to love you.
5I am dark, but lovely,
you daughters of Jerusalem,
like Kedar’s tents,
like Solomon’s curtains.
6Don’t stare at me because I am dark,
because the sun has scorched me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me.
They made me keeper of the vineyards.
I haven’t kept my own vineyard.
7Tell me, you whom my soul loves,
where you graze your flock,
where you rest them at noon;
for why should I be as one who is veiled
beside the flocks of your companions?
Lover
8If you don’t know, most beautiful among women,
follow the tracks of the sheep.
Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.
I have compared you, my love,
to a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots.
10Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings,
your neck with strings of jewels.
Friends
11We will make you earrings of gold,
with studs of silver.
Beloved
12While the king sat at his table,
my perfume spread its fragrance.
13My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh,
that lies between my breasts.
14My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
from the vineyards of En Gedi.
Lover
15Behold, you are beautiful, my love.
Behold, you are beautiful.
Your eyes are like doves.
Beloved
16Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant;
and our couch is verdant.
Lover
17The beams of our house are cedars.
Our rafters are firs.
Song of Solomon 2
Beloved
1I am a rose of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.
Lover
2As a lily among thorns,
so is my love among the daughters.
Beloved
3As the apple tree among the trees of the wood,
so is my beloved among the sons.
I sat down under his shadow with great delight,
his fruit was sweet to my taste.
4He brought me to the banquet hall.
His banner over me is love.
5Strengthen me with raisins,
refresh me with apples;
for I am faint with love.
6His left hand is under my head.
His right hand embraces me.
7I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
by the roes, or by the hinds of the field,
that you not stir up, nor awaken love,
until it so desires.
The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes,
leaping on the mountains,
skipping on the hills.
9My beloved is like a roe or a young deer.
Behold, he stands behind our wall!
He looks in at the windows.
He glances through the lattice.
My beloved spoke, and said to me,
“Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.
11For behold, the winter is past.
The rain is over and gone.
12The flowers appear on the earth.
The time of the singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
13The fig tree ripens her green figs.
The vines are in blossom.
They give out their fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away.”
Lover
14My dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the hiding places of the mountainside,
let me see your face.
Let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.
15Catch for us the foxes,
the little foxes that plunder the vineyards;
for our vineyards are in blossom.
Beloved
16My beloved is mine, and I am his.
He browses among the lilies.
17Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away,
turn, my beloved,
and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.
Song of Solomon 3
1By night on my bed,
I sought him whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but I didn’t find him.
2I will get up 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 didn’t find him.
3The watchmen who go about the city found me;
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
4I had scarcely passed from 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,
into the room of her who conceived me.
I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
by the roes, or by the hinds of the field,
that you not stir up nor awaken love,
until it so desires.
Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
with all spices of the merchant?
7Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage!
Sixty mighty men are around it,
of the mighty men of Israel.
8They all handle the sword, and are expert in war.
Every man has his sword on his thigh,
because of fear in the night.
King Solomon made himself a carriage
of the wood of Lebanon.
10He made its pillars of silver,
its bottom of gold, its seat of purple,
the middle of it being paved with love,
from the daughters of Jerusalem.
11Go out, you daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon,
with the crown with which his mother has crowned him,
in the day of his weddings,
in the day of the gladness of his heart.
Song of Solomon 4
Lover
1Behold, you are beautiful, my love.
Behold, you are beautiful.
Your eyes are like doves behind your veil.
Your hair is as a flock of goats,
that descend from Mount Gilead.
2Your teeth are like a newly shorn flock,
which have come up from the washing,
where every one of them has twins.
None is bereaved among them.
3Your lips are like scarlet thread.
Your mouth is lovely.
Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.
4Your neck is like David’s tower built for an armory,
on which a thousand shields hang,
all the shields of the mighty men.
5Your two breasts are like two fawns
that are twins of a roe,
which feed among the lilies.
Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away,
I will go to the mountain of myrrh,
to the hill of frankincense.
You are all beautiful, my love.
There is no spot in you.
8Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
with me from Lebanon.
Look from the top of Amana,
from the top of Senir and Hermon,
from the lions’ dens,
from the mountains of the leopards.
You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride.
You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes,
with one chain of your neck.
10How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine,
the fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices!
11Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb.
Honey and milk are under your tongue.
The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
12My sister, my bride, is a locked up garden;
a locked up spring,
a sealed fountain.
13Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits,
henna with spikenard plants,
14spikenard and saffron,
calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree;
myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices,
15a fountain of gardens,
a well of living waters,
flowing streams from Lebanon.
Beloved
16Awake, north wind, and come, you south!
Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out.
Let my beloved come into his garden,
and taste his precious fruits.
Song of Solomon 5
Lover
Friends
1I have come into my garden, my sister, my 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, friends!
Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.
Beloved
2I was asleep, but my heart was awake.
It is the voice of my beloved who knocks:
“Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled;
for my head is filled with dew,
and my hair with the dampness of the night.”
3I have taken off my robe. Indeed, must I put it on?
I have washed my feet. Indeed, must I soil them?
4My beloved thrust his hand in through the latch opening.
My heart pounded for him.
5I rose up to open for my beloved.
My hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh,
on the handles of the lock.
6I opened to my beloved;
but my beloved left, and had gone away.
My heart went out when he spoke.
I looked for him, but I didn’t find him.
I called him, but he didn’t answer.
7The watchmen who go about the city found me.
They beat me.
They bruised me.
The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me.
I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
If you find my beloved,
that you tell him that I am faint with love.
Friends
9How is your beloved better than another beloved,
you fairest among women?
How is your beloved better than another beloved,
that you do so adjure us?
Beloved
10My beloved is white and ruddy.
The best among ten thousand.
11His head is like the purest gold.
His hair is bushy, black as a raven.
12His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks,
washed with milk, mounted like jewels.
13His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes.
His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
14His hands are like rings of gold set with beryl.
His body is like ivory work overlaid with sapphires.
15His legs are like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
16His mouth is sweetness;
yes, he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved, and this is my friend,
daughters of Jerusalem.
Song of Solomon 6
Friends
1Where has your beloved gone, you fairest among women?
Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?
Beloved
2My beloved has gone down to his garden,
to the beds of spices,
to pasture his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
3I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.
He browses among the lilies.
Lover
You are beautiful, my love, as Tirzah,
lovely as Jerusalem,
awesome as an army with banners.
5Turn away your eyes from me,
for they have overcome me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats,
that lie along the side of Gilead.
6Your teeth are like a flock of ewes,
which have come up from the washing,
of which every one has twins;
not one is bereaved among them.
7Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.
There are sixty queens, eighty concubines,
and virgins without number.
9My dove, my perfect one, is unique.
She is her mother’s only daughter.
She is the favorite one of her who bore her.
The daughters saw her, and called her blessed.
The queens and the concubines saw her, and they praised her.
Who is she who looks out as the morning,
beautiful as the moon,
clear as the sun,
and awesome as an army with banners?
I went down into the nut tree grove,
to see the green plants of the valley,
to see whether the vine budded,
and the pomegranates were in flower.
12Without realizing it,
my desire set me with my royal people’s chariots.
Friends
Lover
13Return, return, Shulammite!
Return, return, that we may gaze at you.
Why do you desire to gaze at the Shulammite,
as at the dance of Mahanaim?