The Common Destiny of All and the Call to Enjoy Life
Ecclesiastes 9:1-12
1For I gave all this to my heart and to explain all this: that the righteous and the wise and their work are in the hand of God; also love, also hate; the man knows nothing of all that is before them.2All comes alike to all: one accident to the righteous and to the wicked, to the pleasant and to the pure and to the unclean, to the one who sacrifices and to the one who does not sacrifice; as the pleasant, so the sinner; the one who swears as the one who fears an oath.3This is evil in all that is done under the sun, that one accident comes to all; and also the heart of the sons of man is full of evil and madness in their life, and after it they go to the dead.4For whoever is joined to all the living has trust, because a living dog is pleasant compared with the dead lion.5For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, and there is no longer reward for them, because their memorial is forgotten.6Their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished; never again will they have a portion in anything that is done under the sun.7Go, eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a pleasant heart, for God has already accepted your work.8Let your garments always be white, and let oil not be lacking on your head.9Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you labor under the sun.10All that your hand finds to do, do with your strength, for there is no work or explanation or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.11I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the mighty, nor food to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those who know, but time and chance meet them all.12For man does not know his time; like fish grasped in a harmful net, and like birds grasped in a snare, so the sons of man are ensnared at a harmful time, when it suddenly falls upon them.