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7:1  Better is a good reputation than precious oil and the day of death than the day of birth.
7:2  Better to go to a house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, since that is the end of all mankind —and the living should take it to heart.
7:3  Grief is better than laughter, for though the face is sad, the heart may be glad.
7:4  The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in a house of pleasure.
7:5  Better to hear a rebuke from the wise than to listen to the song of fools.
7:6  For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is vapor.
7:7  For extortion drives a wise man crazy, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
7:8  Better the end of a matter than its beginning. Better a patient spirit than a proud one.
7:9  Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger settles in the bosom of fools.
7:10  Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.
7:11  Wisdom is as good as an inheritance, and even better for those who see the sun.
7:12  For wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: wisdom preserves the life of the one who possesses it.
7:13  Consider the work of God, for who can straighten what He has bent?
7:14  In a time of prosperity, prosper! But in a time of adversity, consider: God has made one as well as the other. Therefore man cannot discover anything about his future.
7:15  During my fleeting days I have seen both of these things: sometimes a righteous one perishes in his righteousness and sometimes a wicked one lives long in his wickedness.
7:16  Do not be overly righteous nor overly wise— why confound yourself?
7:17  Do not be overly wicked and do not be a fool— why die before your time?
7:18  It is good to grasp the one and not withdraw your hand from the other. For the one who fears God will escape both extremes.
7:19  Wisdom makes a wise man stronger than ten rulers in a city.
7:20  Surely there is not a righteous person on earth who does what is good and doesn’t sin.
7:21  Also, do not pay attention to every word people say, otherwise you might hear your servant mocking you—
7:22  for your heart knows that many times you too have mocked others.
7:23  All this I have tested with wisdom and I said, “I determined to be wise”—but it was far from me.
7:24  Whatever it may be, it is far off and very profound—who can fathom it?
7:25  So I turned my heart to understand, to search and seek out wisdom and an explanation of things and to know the stupidity of wickedness and madness of folly.
7:26  I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap, and whose hands are chains. He who pleases God will escape her, but a sinner will be captured by her.
7:27  “Look,” said Kohelet, “I have discovered this while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things—
7:28  which my soul is still seeking, but not finding—I found one upright man among a thousand, but one upright woman among them all I have not found.
7:29  Only this have I discovered: God made mankind upright, but they went seeking after many schemes.”