17. Don’t be too wicked and don’t be a fool, or you may die before your time.
18. It’s good that you take hold of one of these without letting go of the other because the one who fears God will go forth with both.
19. Wisdom makes a wise person stronger than ten rulers who are in a city.
20. Remember: there’s no one on earth so righteous as to do good only and never make a mistake.
21. Don’t worry about all the things people say, so you don’t hear your servant cursing you.
22. After all, you know that you’ve often cursed others yourself!
23. I tested all of this by wisdom. I thought, I will be wise, but it eluded me.
24. All that happens is elusive and utterly unfathomable. Who can grasp it?
25. I turned my mind to know, to investigate, and to seek wisdom, along with an account of things, to know that wickedness is foolishness and folly is madness.
26. I found one woman more bitter than death: she who is a trap, her heart a snare, her hands shackles. Anyone who pleases God escapes her, but a sinner is trapped by her.
27. See, this is what I found, says the Teacher, examining one matter after another to account for things.
28. But there’s something that I constantly searched for but couldn’t find: I found one man among a thousand, but I couldn’t find a woman among any of these.