Although I am not a Christian, I love reading the book of Ecclesiastes because it contains harsh truths and amazing pearls of wisdom. While reading the book, I usually note down the most intriguing verses.
Here are they:
2:
14 –‘The wise
man has eyes in his head but the fool walks in darkness.’
2:
24 – ‘There
is nothing better for man than to eat and drink and provide himself with good
things by his labor. Even this I realized is from God’s hand.’
4:7 – ‘Again, I found this
vanity under the sun: a solitary man with no companion; with neither son no
brother.’
5:
14: – ‘As
he came forth from his mother’s womb, so again shall he depart, naked as he
came, having nothing from the labor that he can carry in his hand.’
5:
17 – ‘Here
is what I recognize as good; it is well for a man to eat and drink and enjoy
all the fruits of his labor under the sun during his limited days of the life
which God gives him.’
5:
18 – 19 –
‘Any man to whom God gives riches and property, and grants power to partake of
them so that he receives his lot and finds joy in the fruits of his toil, has a
gift from God. For he will hardly dwell on the shortness of his life because
God lets him busy himself with the joy of his heart.’
7:
3 – ‘Sorrow
is better than laughter because when the face is sad, the heart grows wiser.’
7:
11 –
‘Wisdom and inheritance are good, an advantage to those who see the sun.’
7:14 – ‘On a good day enjoy good
things, and on an evil day consider: both the one and the other God has made.’
7:
15 – 16 –
‘I have seen all manner of things in my vain days; a just man perish in his
justice, and a wicked one surviving in his wickedness. Be not be just to
excess, and be not over-wise, why destroy yourself?’
7:
20: ‘Yet
there is no man on earth so just as to do good and never sin.’
7:
25 – ‘I
turned my thoughts towards knowledge; I sought and pursued wisdom and reason,
and I recognized that wickedness is foolish and folly is madness.’
8:
16 – 17 –
‘When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to observe what is done on earth, I
recognized that man is unable to find out all God’s work that is done under the
sun, even though neither by day nor by night do his eyes find rest in sleep.
However much man toils in searching, he doesn’t find it out; and even if the
wise man says that he knows, he is unable to find out.’
9:
7 – ‘Go,
eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, because it is
now that God favors your works.’
10:
3 – ‘When
the fool walks through the street, in his lack of understanding he calls
everything foolish.’
10:
4 – ‘One
who pays heed to the wind will never sow and one who watches the clouds will
never reap.’
11:
6 – ‘In the
morning sow your seed, and at evening let not your hand be idle; For you not
know which of the two will be successful, or whether both alike will turn out
well.’
11:
8 –
‘However many years a man may live, let him, as he enjoys them all, remember
that the days of darkness will be many. All that is to come is vanity.’
11:
9 –
‘Rejoice, oh young man, while you are young and let your heart be glad in the
days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart, and the vision of your
eyes.’
12:
8 – Vanity
of vanities, says Qoheleth, all things are vanity.’
You
are free to add more pearls of wisdom from Ecclesiastes in the comment box
below.