1. For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it be love or hatred, man knoweth it not; all is before them.
2. All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not; as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
3. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea also, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
4. For to him that is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
5. For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
6. As well their love, as their hatred and their envy, is perished long ago; neither have they any more a portion for ever in anything that is done under the sun.
7. Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God hath already accepted thy works.
8. Let thy garments be always white; and let not thy head lack oil.
9. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of thy life of vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all thy days of vanity: for that is thy portion in life, and in thy labor wherein thou laborest under the sun.