Better the good name which the righteous acquire in this world, than the anointing oil which was poured upon the heads of kings and priests; and the day wherein a man dies and departs to the grave with a good name and merits, than the day wherein the wicked is born into the world.

It is better to go to a mourning man to comfort him, than to go to the house of a feast of wine of the scorners; for into the house of mourning thither is the end of all men to go, for upon all is decreed the decree of death, and by going into the house of mourning the righteous man sits down and takes to heart the words of death; and if there be any evil in his hand he will leave it, and return in repentance before the Lord of the world.

Better is the anger wherewith the Lord of the world is angry with the righteous in this world, than the laughter wherewith he laughs at the wicked; for by the displeasure of the face of the Shechinah come famine and punishment into the world to improve the heart of the righteous, and they pray before the Lord of the world, who has mercy upon them.

The heart of the wise mourns over the destruction of tlie temple, and grieves over the captivity of the house of Israel; and the heart of fools is in the joy of the house of their scoffings; they eat and drink and fare sumptuously, and do not take to heart the affliction of their brethren.

Better to sit at the teaching of the house of instruction, and to hear the reproof of the wise in the Law, than for a man to go to hear the sound of a musical instrument of a fool.

For as the sound of the crackling of thorns which burn under a pot, so is the noisy laughter of the fool; this also is vanity.

For the robber mocks at the wise man because he goes not in his way, and destroys with his evil speech the prudent heart of the wise, which was given to him as a gift from heaven.

Better the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, for in its beginning man knows not what its end will be, but the end of a good thing is known to a good man; and better before the Lord is a man who rules over his spirit and subdues his carnal thouglits, than a man who walks in the pride of his spirit.

And when chastisements from heaven come upon thee, do not hasten thy heart to anger, and to utter words of rebellion against heaven, for if thou bearest them patiently, they will depart from thee; and if thou art rebellious and angry, know that anger rests in the lap of fools till it has destroyed them.

In the time of oppression, say not what was before now was good in the world; for the former days were better, and the men of that generation had better doings than these, therefore good came to them; and thou askest not according to wisdom about this.

Good is the wisdom of the law, along with the inheritance of money, and better still for a man to humbly conduct himself with men, the dwellers of the earth, who see good and evil under the sun in this world.

For as a man is sheltered under the shadow of wisdom, so he is sheltered under the shadow of money, when he does alms with it; and the advantage of knowing the wisdom of the law is that it raises its possessor from the grave for the world to come.

Consider the work of the Lord, and his strength, who made the blind, the hunchback, and the lame, to be wonders in the world; for who is he that can make straight one of these, but the Lord of the world who made him crooked ?

In the day when the Lord is doing good, be thou also happy and do good to all the world; that the evil day may not come upon thee, see and behold! and also God has made this against that to reprove the men of the world, so that man should not find after him any evil in the world to come.

All this I saw in the days of my vanity, that from the Lord are decreed good and evil to be in the world, according to the planets under which the children of men are created; for there is a righteous man perishing in his righteousness in this world, and his merit is kept for him for the world to come; and there is a wicked man who prolongs his days in his guilt, and the account of his evil doings is kept for him for the world to come, to be requited for it in the day of the great judgment.

Be not over-righteous when the guilty is found guilty of death in thy court of judgment, so as to have compassion on him and not to kill him; and do not thus become over-wise with the wisdom of the wicked who stand in the way, and do not learn their ways; why, then, wilt thou destroy thy way?

Go not after the thought of thy heart to sin much, and do not make thy way far from the teaching of the law of God to become a fool; why shouldst thou cause death to thy soul, and the years of thy life be shortened to die, before thy time comes to die?

It is good thou shouldst combine the affairs of this world, namely, to do good to thyself in the way of merchants, and also that thou hold fast thy portion in the Book of the Law, for a man fearing before the Lord performs the duty of both.

And the wisdom of Joseph, son of Jacob, helped him to make him wise before his ten righteous brethren, who ruled in the fear of the Lord; and the evil spirit did not rule in them when they were in the metropolis of Egypt, and did not kill their brother Joseph who annoyed them at that time with the voice of his words.

For there is no righteous man in the land, who does good all his days, and sins not before the Lord; but the man who sins before the Lord, it behoves him to return in repentance before he dies.

Moreover give not thy heart to accept all the words which the wicked speak to thee, that the days may not come when thou shalt hear thy servant curse thee, aud thou hast not the power to be delivered from his hands.

Then see to it, adjudicate thy cause when a man curses thee who is not like thyself; for also many times thy heart knows that thou too hast cursed other men.

All that I said f have tried by wisdom: I said by my word, I shall also be wise in all the wisdom of the Law, but it was far from me.

Behold, long has it been far from the children of men to know all that has been from the days of old; and who is he that will find out by his wisdom the secret of the day of death, and the secret of the day when the King Messiah will come?

I turned to think in my heart, and to know and to examine and to seek wisdom, and the estimate of the reward of the works of the righteous, and to know the punishment of the guilt of the fool, and the understanding of the fear of the Kingdom.

And I found a thing more bitter to man than the bitterness of the day of death, namely, a woman who causes much tribulation to her husband, and entangles him; in whose heart are snares, and whose hands are bound that she might not work with them; the righteous before God is the man who gets rid of her by a bill of divorcement, and relieves himself of her; but the guilty before God is the man who abides with her, and is ensnared with her adultery.

Behold,thisis the work which I have found, said Coheleth, who is called Solomon, King of Israel, I have examined the planets one in connection with the other, to find out the account of the children of men, what will be in their end.

There is another thing which my soul is still seeking, and I have not found, namely, a perfect and just man, without any corruption, as Abraham; from the days of the first Adam till the righteous Abraham was born, who was found faithful and just among the thousand kings that gathered together to build the tower of Babel? and a woman, as Sarah, among all the wives of those kings, I have not found.

Only, behold! this I found, that God made the first Adam upright before him and just; and the serpent and Eve seduced him to eat of the fruit of the tree, because those who eat its fruit would be wise to discern between good and evil, and they brought upon him and all the inhabitants of the earth the day of death; and they sought to find many accounts in order to bring terror upon the inhabitants of the earth.