My God and My Country

The Book of Ecclesiastes

Chapter 9:1-12

 1 I have surely given mine heart to all this, and to declare all this, that the just, and the wise, and their works are in the hand of God: and no man knoweth either love or hatred of all that is before them. (a)
2 All things come alike to all: and the same condition is to the just and to the wicked, to the good and to the pure, and to the polluted, and to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner, he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
3 This is evil among all that is done under the sun, that there is one condition to all, and also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that, they go to the dead.
4 Surely whosoever is joined to all the living, there is hope: for it is better to a living dog, than to a dead lion.
5 For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing at all: neither have they anymore a reward: for their remembrance is forgotten.
6 Also their love and their hatred, and their envy is now perished, and they have no more portion forever, in all that is done under the sun.
7 Go, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a cheerful heart: for God now accepteth thy works.
8 At all times let thy garments be white, and let not oil be lacking upon thine head.
9 Rejoice with the wife whom thou hast loved all the days of the life of thy vanity, which God hath given thee under the sun all the days of thy vanity: for this is thy portion in the life, and in thy travail wherein thou laborest under the sun.
10 All that thine hand shall find to do, do it with all thy power: for there is neither work nor invention, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.
11 I returned, and I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor yet bread to the wise, nor also riches to men of understanding, neither yet favor to men of knowledge: but time and chance cometh to them all.
12 For neither doth man know his time, but as the fishes which are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare: so are the children of men snared in the evil time, when it falleth upon them suddenly.

(a) Read Job 12:6-10