The Value of Wisdom

The Teacher says a good name is better than perfume and that the day of death teaches more than the day of birth because mourning brings the heart to seriousness. Sorrow, the house of mourning, and a wise person's rebuke are all better than the fool's laughter, whose crackling brightness is as empty and short-lived as thorns burning under a pot.

A¹ good name is better than fine perfume, ²It is better to enter a house of mourning ³Sorrow is better than laughter, ⁴The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, ⁵It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke ⁶For like the crackling of thorns under the pot,

The Teacher warns that corruption and bribery can distort wisdom, then commends patience and the end of a matter above pride and the beginning. Quick anger and nostalgic complaints about former days alike are exposed as unwise responses that refuse to live faithfully within the present.

⁷Surely extortion turns a wise man into a fool, ⁸The end of a matter is better than the beginning, ⁹Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, ¹⁰Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?”

Wisdom is said to be good like an inheritance and to provide shelter, yet its chief excellence is that it preserves the life of its possessor. Still, wisdom must operate under the larger reality of God's sovereign work, so one should rejoice in prosperity, consider adversity carefully, and remember that God appoints both in such a way that the future cannot be fully known in advance.

¹¹Wisdom, like an inheritance, is good, ¹²For wisdom, like money, is a shelter, ¹³Consider the work of God: ¹⁴In the day of prosperity, be joyful,