Ecclesiastes 9 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

I took all of this to heart and examined it carefully: the just, the wise, and everything they do are held in God's hands. Yet whether love or hate awaits them, no one can tell. Everything that lies ahead remains hidden from them.

The same fate comes to everyone — to the good and the corrupt, to the clean and the unclean, to the one who offers sacrifices and the one who doesn't. What happens to the good person happens equally to the one who fails. The one who makes promises before God and the one who's afraid to make them end up in the same place.

This is the bitter truth woven through everything that happens under the sun: the same fate meets everyone. And because of this, the human heart is full of corruption, and madness fills their minds while they're alive — and after that, they join the dead.

But for anyone still among the living, there is hope — because a living dog is better off than a dead lion.

The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing at all. There is no more reward for them — even the memory of them fades away.

Their love, their hate, their ambition — all of it has already vanished. They have no share anymore in anything that happens under the sun.

So go — eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a full heart, because God has already approved of what you do.

Let your clothes always be bright, and never run out of oil for your head.

Enjoy life with the woman you love through all the fleeting days of your life — every one of those mist-like days God has given you under the sun. Because that is your portion in life, and in the work you pour yourself into under the sun.

Whatever your hand finds to do, throw yourself into it with everything you have — because in the grave where you're headed, there is no work, no planning, no knowledge, and no wisdom.

I looked again at life under the sun: the race doesn't always go to the fastest, the battle doesn't always go to the strongest, bread doesn't always go to the wise, wealth doesn't always go to the brilliant, and recognition doesn't always go to the skilled — because time and chance overtake them all.

No one even knows when their time will come. Like fish caught in a cruel net, or birds trapped in a snare — just like them, people are caught by sudden disaster when it crashes down on them without warning.

I also observed this example of wisdom under the sun, and it struck me deeply:

There was a small city with only a few people in it. A powerful king marched against it, surrounded it, and built massive siege walls around it.

But inside the city there was a poor man who was wise, and he saved the city through his wisdom. Yet afterward, no one remembered that poor man.

So I concluded: wisdom is better than brute force. But the poor man's wisdom gets dismissed, and his words go unheard.

The quiet words of the wise are worth more than the shouting of a ruler surrounded by fools.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one person's failure can destroy an enormous amount of good.