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Ecclesiastes 9:7-12
New Living Translation
Ecclesiastes 9:7-12
New Living Translation
7 So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this! 8 Wear fine clothes, with a splash of cologne!
9 Live happily with the woman you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you under the sun. The wife God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil. 10 Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave,[a] there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
11 I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.
12 People can never predict when hard times might come. Like fish in a net or birds in a trap, people are caught by sudden tragedy.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 9:10 Hebrew to Sheol.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-12
New International Version
Ecclesiastes 9:7-12
New International Version
7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine(A) with a joyful heart,(B) for God has already approved what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white,(C) and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife,(D) whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot(E) in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever(F) your hand finds to do, do it with all your might,(G) for in the realm of the dead,(H) where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.(I)
11 I have seen something else under the sun:
The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,(J)
nor does food come to the wise(K)
or wealth to the brilliant
or favor to the learned;
but time and chance(L) happen to them all.(M)
12 Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.