8. Thy garments shall always be white, and thy head shall never lack ointment.
9. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou dost love all the days which thou art to live in this lake of vanity, which are given unto thee; all the days of thy vanity under the sun: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour in which thou dost work under the sun.
10. Whatever thy hand finds to do, do it with all thy might, for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, where thou goest.
11. I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of prudence, nor yet grace to men of eloquence; but time and chance happens to them all.
12. For man also does not know his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in the evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them.
13. I have also seen this wisdom under the sun, which is important unto me:
14. There was a little city and few men within it; and a great king came against it and besieged it and built great bulwarks against it;
15. now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no one remembered that same poor man.
16. Then I said, Wisdom is better than strength: even though the poor man’s knowledge is despised, and his words are not heard.
17. The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that rules among fools.
18. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.