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7:1  A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.
7:2  It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, since that is the end of all mankind, and the living should take it to heart.
7:3  Grief is better than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be glad.
7:4  The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in a house of pleasure.
7:5  It is better to listen to rebuke from a wise person than to listen to the song of fools,
7:6  for like the crackling of burning thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is futile.
7:7  Surely, the practice of extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the mind.
7:8  The end of a matter is better than its beginning; a patient spirit is better than a proud spirit.
7:9  Don’t let your spirit rush to be angry, for anger abides in the heart of fools.
7:10  Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” since it is not wise of you to ask this.
7:11  Wisdom is as good as an inheritance and an advantage to those who see the sun,
7:12  because wisdom is protection as silver is protection; but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.
7:13  Consider the work of God, for who can straighten out what he has made crooked?
7:14  In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that no one can discover anything that will come after him.
7:15  In my futile life I have seen everything: someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil.
7:16  Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?
7:17  Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time?
7:18  It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.
7:19  Wisdom makes the wise person stronger than ten rulers of a city.
7:20  There is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins.
7:21  Don’t pay attention to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you,
7:22  for in your heart you know that many times you yourself have cursed others.
7:23  I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me.
7:24  What exists is beyond reach and very deep. Who can discover it?
7:25  I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and examine wisdom and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness.
7:26  And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a trap: her heart a net and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her.
7:27  “Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation,
7:28  which my soul continually searches for but does not find: I found one person in a thousand, but none of those was a woman.
7:29  Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”