Man knows not certainty that he is in God’s grace. After death no more
work or merit.
9:1. All these things have I considered in my heart, that I might
carefully understand them: there are just men and wise men, and their
works are in the hand of God: and yet man knoweth not whether he be
worthy of love, or hatred:
9:2. But all things are kept uncertain for the time to come, because
all things equally happen to the just and to the wicked, to the good
and to the evil, to the clean and to the unclean, to him that offereth
victims, and to him that despiseth sacrifices. As the good is, so also
is the sinner: as the perjured, so he also that sweareth truth.
9:3. This is a very great evil among all things that are done under the
sun, that the same things happen to all men: whereby also the hearts of
the children of men are filled with evil, and with contempt while they
live, and afterwards they shall be brought down to hell.
9:4. There is no man that liveth always, or that hopeth for this: a
living dog is better than a dead lion.
9:5. For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing
more, neither have they a reward any more: for the memory of them is
forgotten.
Know nothing more.... Viz., as to the transactions of this world, in
which they have now no part, unless it be revealed to them; neither
have they any knowledge or power now of doing any thing to secure their
eternal state, (if they have not taken care of it in their lifetime:)
nor can they now procure themselves any good, as the living always may
do, by the grace of God.
9:6. Their love also, and their hatred, and their envy are all
perished, neither have they any part in this world, and in the work
that is done under the sun.
9:7. Go then, and eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with
gladness: because thy works please God.
9:8. At all times let thy garments be white, and let not oil depart
from thy head.
9:9. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest, all the days of thy
unsteady life, which are given to thee under the sun, all the time of
thy vanity: for this is thy portion in life, and in thy labour
wherewith thou labourest under the sun.
9:10. Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: for neither
work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither
thou art hastening.
9:11. I turned me to another thing, and I saw that under the sun, the
race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to
the wise, nor riches to the learned, nor favour to the skilful: but
time and chance in all.
9:12. Man knoweth not his own end: but as fishes are taken with the
hook, and as birds are caught with the snare, so men are taken in the
evil time, when it shall suddenly come upon them.
9:13. This wisdom also I have seen under the sun, and it seemed to me
to be very great:
9:14. A little city, and few men in it: there came against it a great
king, and invested it, and built bulwarks round about it, and the siege
was perfect.
9:15. Now there was found in it a man poor and wise, and he delivered
the city by his wisdom, and no man afterward remembered that poor man.
9:16. And I said that wisdom is better than strength: how then is the
wisdom of the poor man slighted, and his words not heard?
9:17. The words of the wise are heard in silence, more than the cry of
a prince among fools.
9:18. Better is wisdom, than weapons of war: and he that shall offend
in one, shall lose many good things.