1A good reputation is better than expensive perfume, and the day of death is better than the day of birth.
2It is better to go to a house where someone has died than to go to a party. Death is the end for everyone, and the living should remember this.
3Sadness is better than laughter because a sober face can make the heart better.
4Wise people think about serious things, but foolish people are focused on having a good time.
5It is better to listen to the corrections of a wise person than to listen to the praise of fools.
6The laughter of a fool is like the crackling of thorns burning under a pot—it's useless. This, too, is pointless.
7Certainly, a wise person can be made foolish by oppression, and a bribe can destroy their understanding.
8The end of a matter is better than its beginning. It is better to be patient than to be proud.
9Don't be quick to get angry, because anger settles in the hearts of fools.
10Don't ask, "Why were the past days better than these?" because that's not a wise question.
11Wisdom is as good as an inheritance, and it is even more valuable for those who live to see it.
12Wisdom provides protection, just as money provides protection; but the great advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of the one who has it.
13Consider God's work: who can straighten what he has made crooked?
14Be happy when things are going well, and when things are going badly, think about it. God has made both good times and bad times so that humans cannot predict the future.
15In my pointless life, I have seen everything: there are good people who die despite their goodness, and there are wicked people who live a long time despite their evil.
16Don't try to be too righteous or too wise. Why ruin yourself?
17Don't be too wicked or too foolish. Why die before your time?
18It is good to hold on to this advice and not let go, because whoever fears God will escape all these extremes.
19Wisdom makes a wise person stronger than ten rulers in a city.
20Indeed, there is no one on earth so righteous that they always do good and never sin.
21Also, don't pay attention to every word that people say, so you don't hear your servant cursing you;
22because you know in your own heart that you have often cursed others yourself.
23I have tested all this through my wisdom. I said, “I want to be wise,” but wisdom was beyond my reach.
24What is real is far away and extremely deep. Who can truly understand it?
25I turned my thoughts to understand, to explore, and to search for wisdom and the reason behind things. I wanted to learn that wickedness is foolish and that foolishness is madness.
26I find a woman whose heart is a snare and a trap, and whose hands are chains, to be more bitter than death. Whoever pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be caught by her.
27“Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I found by checking things one by one to understand them.”
28My soul is still searching, but I haven't found what I'm looking for. I found one upright man among a thousand, but I haven't found one upright woman among all of them.
29Look, this is all I have discovered: God made people straightforward, but they have invented many complicated schemes.