Wisdom 2

1 For thy conscience knoweth that thou also hast often spoken evil of others. 2 I have tried all things in wisdom. I have said: I will be wise: and it departed farther from me, 3 Much more than it was: it is a great depth, who shall find it out? 4 I have surveyed all things with my mind, to know, and consider, and seek out wisdom and reason: and to know the wickedness of the fool, and the error of the imprudent: 5 And I have found a woman more bitter than death, who is the hunter’s snare, and her heart is a net, and her hands are bands. He that pleaseth God shall escape from her: but he that is a sinner, shall be caught by her. 6 Lo this have I found, said Ecclesiastes, weighing one thing after another, that I might find out the account, 7 Which yet my soul seeketh, and I have not found it. One man among a thousand I have found, a woman among them all I have not found. 8 Only this I have found, that God made man right, and he hath entangled himself with an infinity of questions. Who is as the wise man? and who hath known the resolution of the word? 10 The wisdom of a man shineth in his countenance, and the most mighty will change his face. 11 I observe the mouth of the king, and the commandments of the oath of God. 12 Be not hasty to depart from his face, and do not continue in an evil work: for he will do all that pleaseth him: 13 And his word is full of power: neither can any man say to him: Why dost thou so? 14 He that keepeth the commandment, shall find no evil. The heart of a wiser man understandeth time and answer. 15 There is a time and opportunity for every business, and great affliction for man: 16 Because he is ignorant of things past, and things to come he cannot know by any messenger. 17 It is not in man’s power to stop the spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death, neither is he suffered to rest when war is at hand, neither shall wickedness save the wicked. 18 All these things I have considered, and applied my heart to all the works that are done under the sun. Sometimes one man ruleth over another to his own hurt. 19 I saw the wicked buried: who also when they were yet living were in the holy place, and were praised in the city as men of just works: but this also is vanity. 20 For because sentence is not speedily pronounced against the evil, the children of men commit evils without any fear. 21 But though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and by patience be borne withal, I know from thence that it shall be well with them that fear God, who dread his face. 22 But let it not be well with the wicked, neither let his days be prolonged, but as a shadow let them pass away that fear not the face of the Lord. 23 There is also another vanity, which is done upon the earth. There are just men to whom evils happen, as though they had done the works of the wicked: and there are wicked men, who are as secure as though they had the deeds of the just: but this also I judge most vain. 24 Therefore I commended mirth, because there was no good for a man under the sun, but to eat, and drink, and be merry, and that he should take nothing else with him of his labour in the days of his life, which God hath given him under the sun.