| | 1 | A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth. | |
| | 2 | It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart. | |
| | 3 | Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. | |
| | 4 | The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure. | |
| | 5 | It is better to heed a wise man's rebuke than to listen to the song of fools. | |
| | 6 | Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. This too is meaningless. | |
| | 7 | Extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart. | |
| | 8 | The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. | |
| | 9 | Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools. | |
| | 10 | Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?" For it is not wise to ask such questions. | |
| | 11 | Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun. | |
| | 12 | Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor. | |
| | 13 | Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? | |
| | 14 | When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future. | |
| | 15 | In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: a righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness. | |
| | 16 | Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise--why destroy yourself? | |
| | 17 | Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool--why die before your time? | |
| | 18 | It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. The man who fears God will avoid all extremes. | |
| | 19 | Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful than ten rulers in a city. | |
| | 20 | There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins. | |
| | 21 | Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you-- | |
| | 22 | for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others. | |
| | 23 | All this I tested by wisdom and I said, "I am determined to be wise"--but this was beyond me. | |
| | 24 | Whatever wisdom may be, it is far off and most profound--who can discover it? | |
| | 25 | So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly. | |
| | 26 | I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare. | |
| | 27 | "Look," says the Teacher, "this is what I have discovered: "Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things-- | |
| | 28 | while I was still searching but not finding--I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all. | |
| | 29 | This only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes." | |
