5. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, even the memory of them is forgotten.
6. Their love, their hatred, and their zeal have already perished; never again will they have a share in anything that is done under the sun.
7. Go! Eat your bread with gladness and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already accepted your deeds.
8. Let your clothes always be white, and do not spare oil on your head.
9. Live joyously with the wife whom you love all the days of your fleeting life that He has given you under the sun during all your fleeting days—for this is your portion in life and in your toil that you labor under the sun.
10. Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your strength, for there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, where you are going.
11. I further observed under the sun: The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the mighty, nor does bread come to the wise, or wealth to the discerning, or favor to the skillful; for time and chance befall them all.
12. Moreover, no man knows his time: like fish caught in a fatal net or birds caught in a snare, so people are trapped in a time of calamity, that falls upon them suddenly.
13. I also observed this as wisdom under the sun, and it greatly impressed me.
14. There was a little city with a few people in it and a mighty king came against it, surrounded it, and built great siege works against it.
15. Now a poor, wise man was found in it, and he delivered the city by his shrewdness. Yet nobody remembered that poor man!
16. So I said: “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heeded.