Study Desk

Don’t let your spirit rush to be angry,for anger abides in the heart of fools.

Consider the work of God,for who can straighten outwhat he has made crooked?

It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.

for in your heart you know that many times you yourself have cursed others.

I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and examine wisdom and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness.

which my soul continually searches for but does not find: I found one person in a thousand, but none of those was a woman.

For the king’s word is authoritative, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

For every activity there is a right time and procedure, even though a person’s troubles are heavy on him.

Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before him.

However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God.

So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

Everything is the same for everyone: There is one fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As it is for the good, so also it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who takes an oath, so also for the one who fears an oath.

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: there is one fate for everyone. In addition, the hearts of people are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live; after that they go to the dead.

But there is hope for whoever is joined with all the living, since a live dog is better than a dead lion.

For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything. There is no longer a reward for them because the memory of them is forgotten.

Their love, their hate, and their envy have already disappeared, and there is no longer a portion for them in all that is done under the sun.

Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works.

Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun.

For certainly no one knows his time: like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap, so people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them.

If the ruler’s anger rises against you, don’t leave your post,for calmness puts great offenses to rest.