4. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth and sensual joy.
5. It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.
6. For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility)!
7. Surely oppression and extortion make a wise man foolish, and a bribe destroys the understanding and judgment.
8. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning of it, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
9. Do not be quick in spirit to be angry or vexed, for anger and vexation lodge in the bosom of fools. [James 1:19, 20.]
10. Do not say, Why were the old days better than these? For it is not wise or because of wisdom that you ask this.
11. Wisdom is as good as an inheritance, yes, more excellent it is for those [the living] who see the sun.
12. For wisdom is a defense even as money is a defense, but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom shields and preserves the life of him who has it.
13. Consider the work of God: who can make straight what He has made crooked?
14. In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider that God has made the one side by side with the other, so that man may not find out anything that shall be after him.
15. I have seen everything in the days of my vanity (my emptiness, falsity, vainglory, and futility): there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in [spite of] his evildoing.
16. Be not [morbidly exacting and externally] righteous overmuch, neither strive to make yourself [pretentiously appear] overwise–why should you [get puffed up and] destroy yourself [with presumptuous self-sufficiency]?