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1In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other,
2so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.
15
In my
3vain life I have seen everything. There is
4a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who
5prolongs his life in his evildoing.
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Be not overly righteous, and do not
6make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?
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Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool.
7Why should you die before your time?
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It is good that you should take hold of
8this, and from
9that
10withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.
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11Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.
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Surely
12there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
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Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear
13your servant cursing you.
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Your heart knows that
14many times you yourself have cursed others.
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All this I have tested by wisdom.
15I said, "I will be wise," but it was far from me.
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That which has been is far off, and
16deep, very deep;
17who can find it out?
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18I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness.
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And I find something more
19bitter than death:
20the woman whose heart is
21snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but
22the sinner is taken by her.
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Behold, this is what I found, says
23the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things--
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which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found.
24One man among a thousand I found, but
25a woman among all these I have not found.
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See, this alone I found, that
26God made man upright, but
27they have sought out many schemes.