Ecclesiastes 7

Reading Ecclesiastes chapter 7 in the Young's Literal Translation, public-domain text from 1898.

Verses 1–10

1 Better is a name than good perfume, And the day of death than the day of birth.

2 Better to go unto a house of mourning, Than to go unto a house of banqueting, For that is the end of all men, And the living layeth it unto his heart.

3 Better is sorrow than laughter, For by the sadness of the face the heart becometh better.

4 The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, And the heart of fools in a house of mirth.

5 Better to hear a rebuke of a wise man, Than for a man to hear a song of fools,

6 For as the noise of thorns under the pot, So is the laughter of a fool, even this is vanity.

7 Surely oppression maketh the wise mad, And a gift destroyeth the heart.

8 Better is the latter end of a thing than its beginning, Better is the patient of spirit, than the haughty of spirit.

9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, For anger in the bosom of fools resteth.

10 Say not thou, `What was it, That the former days were better than these?' For thou hast not asked wisely of this.

Ecclesiastes in other translations

• KJV Ecclesiastes
• ASV Ecclesiastes
• Darby Ecclesiastes
• DRC Ecclesiastes
• WEB Ecclesiastes
• Webster Ecclesiastes

About this translation

The Young's Literal Translation (1898) is one of seven public-domain translations available in the OCC Bible Explorer. Use the full app to compare translations side by side, search across all translations, and explore Strong's Hebrew and Greek concordance entries linked to every word.