Good News Bible

Ecclesiastes 9:8-14 Good News Bible (GNB)

8. Always look happy and cheerful.

9. Enjoy life with the woman you love, as long as you live the useless life that God has given you in this world. Enjoy every useless day of it, because that is all you will get for all your trouble.

10. Work hard at whatever you do, because there will be no action, no thought, no knowledge, no wisdom in the world of the dead — and that is where you are going.

11. I realized another thing, that in this world fast runners do not always win the race, and the brave do not always win the battle. The wise do not always earn a living, intelligent people do not always get rich, and capable people do not always rise to high positions. Bad luck happens to everyone.

12. You never know when your time is coming. Like birds suddenly caught in a trap, like fish caught in a net, we are trapped at some evil moment when we least expect it.

13. There is something else I saw, a good example of how wisdom is regarded in this world.

14. There was a little town without many people in it. A powerful king attacked it. He surrounded it and prepared to break through the walls.