Ecclésiaste 7.23
New International Version

Conseils de sagesse

Les épreuves et la sagesse

¹ A good name is better than fine perfume,
and the day of death better than the day of birth.

² It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of everyone;
the living should take this to heart.

³ Frustration is better than laughter,
because a sad face is good for the heart.

⁴ The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

⁵ It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person
than to listen to the song of fools.

⁶ Like the crackling of thorns under the pot,
so is the laughter of fools.
This too is meaningless.

⁷ Extortion turns a wise person into a fool,
and a bribe corrupts the heart.

⁸ The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
and patience is better than pride.

⁹ Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,
for anger resides in the lap of fools.

¹⁰ Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?”
For it is not wise to ask such questions.

¹¹ Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing
and benefits those who see the sun.

¹² Wisdom is a shelter
as money is a shelter,
but the advantage of knowledge is this:
Wisdom preserves those who have it.
¹³ Consider what God has done:
Who can straighten
what he has made crooked?

¹⁴ When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider this:
God has made the one
as well as the other.
Therefore, no one can discover
anything about their future.
¹⁵ In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:
the righteous perishing in their righteousness,
and the wicked living long in their wickedness.

¹⁶ Do not be overrighteous,
neither be overwise —
why destroy yourself?

¹⁷ Do not be overwicked,
and do not be a fool —
why die before your time?

¹⁸ It is good to grasp the one
and not let go of the other.
Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.

¹⁹ Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful
than ten rulers in a city.

²⁰ Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous,
no one who does what is right and never sins.

²¹ Do not pay attention to every word people say,
or you may hear your servant cursing you —

²² for you know in your heart
that many times you yourself have cursed others.

La sagesse et les hommes

²³ All this I tested by wisdom and I said,
“I am determined to be wise” —
but this was beyond me.

²⁴ Whatever exists is far off and most profound —
who can discover it?

²⁵ So I turned my mind to understand,
to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things
and to understand the stupidity of wickedness
and the madness of folly.

²⁶ I find more bitter than death
the woman who is a snare,
whose heart is a trap
and whose hands are chains.
The man who pleases God will escape her,
but the sinner she will ensnare.
²⁷ “Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered:
“Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things —

²⁸ while I was still searching
but not finding —
I found one upright man among a thousand,
but not one upright woman among them all.

²⁹ This only have I found:
God created mankind upright,
but they have gone in search of many schemes.”