The same event happens to the righteous and the wicked: death. The living at least have hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. Enjoy life with the spouse you love. The race is not always to the swift, since time and chance happen to all.
1 For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous , and the wise , and their works , are in the hand of God : no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.
2 All 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 sacrificeth , and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good , so is the sinner ; and he that sweareth , as he that feareth an oath .
3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun , that there is one event unto all: yea, 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 .
4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope : for a living dog is better than a dead lion .
5 For the living know that they shall die : but the dead know not any thing , neither have they any more a reward ; for the memory of them is forgotten .
6 Also their love , and their hatred , and their envy , is now perished ; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun .
7 Go thy way , eat thy bread with joy , and drink thy wine with a merry heart ; for God now accepteth thy works .
8 Let thy garments be always white ; and let thy head lack no ointment .
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity , which he hath given thee under the sun , all the days of thy vanity : for that is thy portion in this life , and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun .
10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do , do it with thy might ; for there is no work , nor device , nor knowledge , nor wisdom , in the grave , whither thou goest .
11 I 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 favour to men of skill ; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
12 For man also knoweth not 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 an evil time , when it falleth suddenly upon them.
13 This wisdom have I seen also under the sun , and it seemed great unto me:
14 There was a little city , and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:
15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man , and he by his wisdom delivered the city ; yet no man remembered that same poor man .
16 Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength : nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised , and his words are not heard .
17 The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools .
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war : but one sinner destroyeth much good .