Ecclesiastes 9

¹But all this I have laid unto my heart, so as to clear up the whole of this, that the righteous and the wise, and their works, [are] in the hand of God, neither love nor hatred doth man know, the whole [is] before them.

²The whole [is] as to the whole; one event is to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean, and to him who is sacrificing, and to him who is not sacrificing; as [is] the good, so [is] the sinner, he who is swearing as he who is fearing an oath.

³This [is] an evil among all that hath been done under the sun, that one event [is] to all, and also the heart of the sons of man is full of evil, and madness [is] in their heart during their life, and after it — unto the dead.

⁴But [to] him who is joined unto all the living there is confidence, for to a living dog it [is] better than to the dead lion.

⁵For the living know that they die, and the dead know not anything, and there is no more to them a reward, for their remembrance hath been forgotten.

⁶Their love also, their hatred also, their envy also, hath already perished, and they have no more a portion to the age in all that hath been done under the sun.

⁷Go, eat with joy thy bread, and drink with a glad heart thy wine, for already hath God been pleased with thy works.

⁸At all times let thy garments be white, and let not perfume be lacking on thy head.

⁹See life with the wife whom thou hast loved, all the days of the life of thy vanity, that He hath given to thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity, for it [is] thy portion in life, even of thy labour that thou art labouring at under the sun.