1A good name is better than precious ointments; and the day of death is better than the day of birth.

2It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of a feast; for in that house of mourning the end of all men is warned of, and a man living thinketh, what is to coming [or to come].

3Ire [or wrath] is better than laugh-ing; for the soul of a trespasser is amended by the heaviness of his cheer.

4The heart of wise men is where sorrow is; and the heart of fools is where folly gladness is.

5It is better to be reproved of a wise man, than to be deceived by the flattering of fools;

6for as the sound of thorns burning under a pot, so is the laughing of a fool. But also this is vanity.

7False challenge troubleth a wise man, and it shall lose the strength of his heart.

8Forsooth the end of prayer is better than the beginning. A patient man is better than a proud man.

9Be thou not swift to be wroth; for ire resteth in the bosom of a fool.

10Say thou not, What guessest thou is the cause, that the former times were better than be now? for why such asking is fond or foolish.

11Forsooth wisdom with riches is more profitable, and profiteth more to men seeing the sun.

12For as wisdom defendeth, so money defendeth; but learning and wisdom have this moreover, that those give life to them that have them.

13Behold thou the works of God, and see that no man may amend him, whom God hath despised.

14In a good day use thou goods, and before eschew thou an evil day; for God made so this day as that day, that a man find not just complainings against him.

15Also I saw these things in the days of my nativity ²; a just [or rightwise] man perisheth in his rightfulness [or rightwiseness], and a wicked man liveth much time in his malice.

16Do not thou be just [or rightwise] over much, neither understand thou more than is needful; lest thou be astonied.

17Do thou not wickedly much, and do not thou be a fool; lest thou die in a time not thine.

18It is good, that thou sustain a just [or rightwise] man; but also withdraw thou not thine hand from him; for he that dreadeth God, is not negligent of anything.

19Wisdom hath strengthened a wise man, over ten princes of a city.

20Forsooth no just [or rightwise] man there is in [the] earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.

21But also give thou not thine heart to all words, that be said; lest peradventure thou hear thy servant cursing thee;

22for thy conscience knoweth, that also thou hast cursed oft other men.

23I assayed all things in wisdom; I said, I shall be made wise, and it went away further from me,

24much more than it was; and the depth is low, who shall find it?

25I compassed all things with my soul, to know, and to behold, and seek wisdom, and reason, and to know the wickedness of a fool, and the error of unprudent men.

26And I found a woman bitterer than death, the which is the snare of hunters, and her heart is a net, and her hands be bonds; he that pleaseth God shall escape her, but he that is a sinner, shall be taken of her.

27Lo! I found this, said Ecclesiastes, one and other, that I should find reason,

28which my soul seeketh yet; and I found not. I found one man of a thousand; and I found not a woman of all.

29I found this only, that God made a man rightful [or made man right]; and he meddled himself with questions without number.