Wise Proverbs

¹A good name is better than precious oil,[#Pr 22:1]

and the day of one’s death than one’s birth.

²It is better to go to a house of mourning for a funeral

than to go to a house of feasting for a celebration;

for this is the destiny of all humanity;

and the living should consider this in their heart.

³Grief is better than laughter,

for by sadness of countenance the heart considers the good.

⁴The heart of those who are wise is in the house of mourning,

but the heart of those who are foolish is in the house of feasting.

⁵It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise[#Ps 141:5; Pr 15:31–32]

than to listen to the song of fools.

⁶For like the crackling sound of thorns under a pot,[#Ps 58:9; 118:12]

so is the mocking laughter of fools.

This also is vanity.

⁷Surely oppression brings confusion to the wise person,

and a bribe corrupts a person’s heart.

⁸The end of a matter is better than its beginning,

and the patient in spirit than the haughty in spirit.

⁹Do not be quick in your spirit to be angry,[#Pr 14:17; Jas 1:19]

for anger settles in the bosom of fools.

¹⁰Do not say, “Why were the earlier days better than these days?”

For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

¹¹Wisdom is good as an inheritance,

an advantage to those who see the sun.

¹²For the protective shadow of wisdom

is like the protective shadow of silver,

and the advantage of knowledge is

that wisdom preserves the life of the one who possesses it.

¹³Consider the work of God:

Who can make straight

what He made crooked?

¹⁴In the day of prosperity be joyful,

but in the day of adversity consider:

God has made the one

as well as the other,

so that people may not find out

anything that comes after them.

Riddles of Life

¹⁵I have seen everything in my vain life:

There is the righteous person who dies in his righteousness;

and there is the wicked person who prolongs his life in his wickedness.

¹⁶Do not be excessively righteous,

and do not be extremely wise.

Why ruin yourself?

¹⁷Do not be overly wicked,

and do not be a fool.

Why die before your time?

¹⁸It is good that you take hold of these two sayings,

and from these warnings, remove not your hand;

for the one who fears God will follow them both.

¹⁹Wisdom gives the wise person more strength[#Pr 21:22; 24:5]

than ten rulers who are in the city.

²⁰Surely there is not a righteous man on earth

who only does good and refrains from sin.

²¹Moreover, do not take to heart everything that people say,

lest you hear your servant cursing you.

²²Your heart knows

that many times you yourself have spoken a curse against others.

²³All these matters I have tested by wisdom. I said,

“I will be wise,”

but wisdom has eluded me.

²⁴That which exists is far off

and so deep that it is incomprehensible.

Who can discover it?

²⁵And I turned my heart to know

and seek and search out wisdom in the scheme of things

and to know the wickedness of folly,

and that foolishness is madness.

²⁶And I find more bitter than death

a woman whose heart is like snares and nets,

whose hands are like prison cells.

He who pleases God escapes her,

but the sinner is captured by her.

²⁷“This is what I have observed,” says Qoheleth,

“while adding one thing to another to understand the scheme of things,

²⁸which my soul has continued to seek out,

but I have not come to find it.

I have found only one upright man in a thousand,

but a woman among all of these I have not discovered.

²⁹Observe, this thing alone I have discovered,

that God made people upright,

but they have gone after many schemes.”