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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Ecclesiastes 7 ESV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/ecclesiastes/7.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" 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id="topheading"><a href="../ecclesiastes/6.htm" title="Ecclesiastes 6">◄</a> Ecclesiastes 7 <a href="../ecclesiastes/8.htm" title="Ecclesiastes 8">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">English Standard Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/esv/nas/ecclesiastes/7.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div></a><div class="chap"><p class="heading">The Contrast of Wisdom and Folly</p><span class="block-indent"><p class="line-group"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">A good name is better than precious ointment,</span><br /><span class="indent">and the day of death than the day of birth.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">It is better to go to the house of mourning</span><br /><span class="indent">than to go to the house of feasting,</span><br /><span class="ln-group">for this is the end of all mankind,</span><br /><span class="indent">and the living will lay it to heart.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Sorrow is better than laughter,</span><br /><span class="indent">for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,</span><br /><span class="indent">but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise</span><br /><span class="indent">than to hear the song of fools.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">For as the crackling of thorns under a pot,</span><br /><span class="indent">so is the laughter of the fools;</span><br /><span class="indent">this also is vanity.<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="The Hebrew term hebel can refer to a vapor or mere breath (see note on 1:2)">a</a></sup></span></span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Surely oppression drives the wise into madness,</span><br /><span class="indent">and a bribe corrupts the heart.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Better is the end of a thing than its beginning,</span><br /><span class="indent">and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,</span><br /><span class="indent">for anger lodges in the heart<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Hebrew in the bosom">b</a></sup></span> of fools.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”</span><br /><span class="indent">For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Wisdom is good with an inheritance,</span><br /><span class="indent">an advantage to those who see the sun.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money,</span><br /><span class="indent">and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Consider the work of God:</span><br /><span class="indent">who can make straight what he has made crooked?</span></p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>In my vain<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="The Hebrew term hebel can refer to a vapor or mere breath (see note on 1:2)">c</a></sup></span> life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/7-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="footnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">6</span> The Hebrew term <i language="Hebrew">hebel</i> can refer to a "vapor" or "mere breath" (see note on 1:2)<br /><span class="footnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">9</span> Hebrew <i><span class="catch-word">in the</span> bosom</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">c</span> <span class="fnverse">15</span> The Hebrew term <i language="Hebrew">hebel</i> can refer to a "vapor" or "mere breath" (see note on 1:2)<br /></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">ESV Text Edition® (2016).<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by <a href="http://www.crossway.org/home/esv/">Crossway Bibles</a>, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. 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