Young's Literal Translation

Ecclesiastes

12 chapters

Chapters

Ecclesiastes 1

Words of a preacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

Ecclesiastes 2

I said in my heart, 'Pray, come, I try thee with mirth, and look thou on gladness;' and lo, even it [is] vanity.

Ecclesiastes 3

To everything — a season, and a time to every delight under the heavens:

And I have turned, and I see all the oppressions that are done under the sun, and lo, the tear of the oppressed, and they have no comforter; and at the hand of their oppressors [is] power, and they have no comforter.

Ecclesiastes 5

Keep thy feet when thou goest unto a house of God, and draw near to hear rather than to give of fools the sacrifice, for they do not know they do evil.

Ecclesiastes 6

There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it [is] great on man:

Ecclesiastes 7

Better [is] a name than good perfume, And the day of death than the day of birth.

Ecclesiastes 8

Who [is] as the wise? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? The wisdom of man causeth his face to shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

Ecclesiastes 9

But all this I have laid unto my heart, so as to clear up the whole of this, that the righteous and the wise, and their works, [are] in the hand of God, neither love nor hatred doth man know, the whole [is] before them.

Ecclesiastes 10

Dead flies cause a perfumer's perfume To send forth a stink; The precious by reason of wisdom — By reason of honour — a little folly!

Ecclesiastes 11

Send forth thy bread on the face of the waters, For in the multitude of the days thou dost find it.

Ecclesiastes 12

Remember also thy Creators in days of thy youth, While that the evil days come not, Nor the years have arrived, that thou sayest, 'I have no pleasure in them.'