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Ecclesiastes 7 - Good News Bible bible

Ecclesiastes 7

¹A good reputation is better than expensive perfume; and the day you die is better than the day you are born.

²It is better to go to a home where there is mourning than to one where there is a party, because the living should always remind themselves that death is waiting for us all.

³Sorrow is better than laughter; it may sadden your face, but it sharpens your understanding.

⁴Someone who is always thinking about happiness is a fool. A wise person thinks about death.

⁵It is better to have wise people reprimand you than to have stupid people sing your praises.

⁶When a fool laughs, it is like thorns crackling in a fire. It doesn't mean a thing.

⁷You may be wise, but if you cheat someone, you are acting like a fool. If you take a bribe, you ruin your character.

⁸The end of something is better than its beginning. Patience is better than pride.

⁹Keep your temper under control; it is foolish to harbor a grudge.

¹⁰Never ask, "Oh, why were things so much better in the old days?" It's not an intelligent question.

¹¹Everyone who lives ought to be wise; it is as good as receiving an inheritance

¹²and will give you as much security as money can. Wisdom keeps you safe---this is the advantage of knowledge.

¹³Think about what God has done. How can anyone straighten out what God has made crooked?

¹⁴When things are going well for you, be glad, and when trouble comes, just remember: God sends both happiness and trouble; you never know what is going to happen next.

¹⁵My life has been useless, but in it I have seen everything. Some good people may die while others live on, even though they are evil.

¹⁶So don't be too good or too wise---why kill yourself ?

¹⁷But don't be too wicked or too foolish, either---why die before you have to?

¹⁸Avoid both extremes. If you have reverence for God, you will be successful anyway.

¹⁹Wisdom does more for a person than ten rulers can do for a city.

²⁰There is no one on earth who does what is right all the time and never makes a mistake.

²¹Don't pay attention to everything people say---you may hear your servant insulting you,

²²and you know yourself that you have insulted other people many times.

²³I used my wisdom to test all of this. I was determined to be wise, but it was beyond me.

²⁴How can anyone discover what life means? It is too deep for us, too hard to understand.

²⁵But I devoted myself to knowledge and study; I was determined to find wisdom and the answers to my questions, and to learn how wicked and foolish stupidity is.

²⁶I found something more bitter than death---the woman who is like a trap. The love she offers you will catch you like a net, and her arms around you will hold you like a chain. A man who pleases God can get away, but she will catch the sinner.

²⁷Yes, said the Philosopher, I found this out little by little while I was looking for answers.

²⁸I have looked for other answers but have found none. I found one man in a thousand that I could respect, but not one woman.

²⁹This is all that I have learned: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.