Ecclesiastes 7

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

Ecclesiastes chapter 7 presents a series of comparative observations regarding life, wisdom, foolishness, and sorrow. The text contrasts mourning with feasting, patience with pride, and the rebuke of the wise with the laughter of fools. The Teacher examines the works of God, noting both prosperity and adversity, and observes that no righteous person on earth does good without ever sinning. Through testing and searching, the Teacher reflects on the difficulty of attaining total wisdom, evaluates human behavior, and concludes that while God made humanity upright, people have pursued many different schemes.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹A good name is better than fine perfume, and one’s day of death is better than his day of birth. ²It is better to enter a house of mourning than a house of feasting, since death is the end of every man, and the living should take this to heart. ³Sorrow is better than laughter, for a sad countenance is good for the heart. ⁴The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure. ⁵It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools. ⁶For like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is futile. ⁷Surely extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart. ⁸The end of a matter is better than the beginning, and a patient spirit is better than a proud one. ⁹Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger settles in the lap of a fool. ¹⁰Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is unwise of you to ask about this. ¹¹Wisdom, like an inheritance, is good, and it benefits those who see the sun. ¹²For wisdom, like money, is a shelter, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner. ¹³Consider the work of God: Who can straighten what He has bent? ¹⁴In the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider this: God has made one of these along with the other, so that a man cannot discover anything that will come after him. ¹⁵In my futile life I have seen both of these: A righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness. ¹⁶Do not be overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? ¹⁷Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time? ¹⁸It is good to grasp the one and not let the other slip from your hand. For he who fears God will follow both warnings. ¹⁹Wisdom makes the wise man stronger than ten rulers in a city. ²⁰Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. ²¹Do not pay attention to every word that is spoken, or you may hear your servant cursing you. ²²For you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others. ²³All this I tested by wisdom, saying, “I resolve to be wise.” But it was beyond me. ²⁴What exists is out of reach and very deep. Who can fathom it? ²⁵I directed my mind to understand, to explore, to search out wisdom and explanations, and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the folly of madness. ²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared. ²⁷“Behold,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find an explanation. ²⁸While my soul was still searching but not finding, among a thousand I have found one upright man, but among all these I have not found one such woman. ²⁹Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made mankind upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.