A good name is better than good oil, and the day of death than the day of birth.

It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every person, and the living should take it to heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter, because by the sadness of the face, the heart is made better.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, and the heart of fools is in the house of celebration.

It is better to hear the rebuke of a wise person than for a person to hear the song of fools.

Because like the sound of pots under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool. And this too is futility.

Because oppression makes a wise person act foolishly, and a gift destroys the heart.

The end of a matter is better than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

Do not be quick in your spirit to become angry, because anger rests in the lap of fools.

Do not say, 'What happened? The former days were better than these,' because you did not ask this with wisdom.

Wisdom is good with an inheritance, and more so for those who see the sun.

Because wisdom is a shadow, and wealth is a shadow. But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its possessors.

See the works of יהוה, because who can straighten what He has made crooked?

In a day of good, be in good, and in a day of bad, see also this: יהוה has made the one opposite the other, so that a person may not find anything after Him.

I have seen everything in the days of my futility: there is a righteous person perishing in his righteousness, and there is a wicked person prolonging his life in his wickedness.

Do not be too righteous, and do not be too wise. Why would you become desolate?

Do not be too wicked, and do not be foolish. Why would you die before your time?

It is good that you grasp this, and also do not let go of that, because the one who fears יהוה will escape them all.

Wisdom makes a wise person stronger than ten rulers who were in the city.

Because there is no righteous person on earth who does good and does not sin.

Also, do not pay attention to all the words that are spoken, so that you do not hear your servant cursing you.

Because many times your own heart knows that you yourself have cursed others.

I tested all this with wisdom. I said, 'I will become wise,' but it was far from me.

What has been is far off, and what is deep, deep—who can find it?

I turned myself and my heart to know, to search, and to seek wisdom and understanding, and to know wickedness as folly and foolishness as madness.

And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is traps and snares, her hands are chains. It is good before יהוה to escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

See, this I have found, says the Preacher, one by one, to find the accounting:

What my soul still seeks and has not found: one man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found.

Only see, this I have found: יהוה made mankind upright, but they have sought out many schemes.