Bible passages

Ecclesiastes 6:1–12

The Futility of Life

Ecclesiastes 6:1-12 describes hard limits in human life. Riches, long years, labour, and many words do not automatically bring enjoyment, profit, or clear answers about what is truly good for a person.

Ecclesiastes 7:1–14

The Value of Wisdom

Ecclesiastes 7:1–14 gathers wise sayings that challenge easy assumptions. The passage values mourning over feasting, rebuke over foolish entertainment, patience over pride, and thoughtful attention to God’s work over careless reactions.

Ecclesiastes 7:15–29

The Limits of Human Wisdom

Ecclesiastes 7:15–29 faces troubling facts about life, then tests what wisdom can really discover.

Ecclesiastes 8:1–9

Obey the King

Ecclesiastes 8:1–9 reflects on wisdom, authority and human limits. The passage speaks carefully about keeping a king’s command while also noticing hardship, uncertainty and the damage that power can do.

Ecclesiastes 8:10–13

Fear God

This passage names something hard to watch: wicked people are buried and forgotten, evil is not judged quickly, and sinners may seem to go on for a long time.

Ecclesiastes 8:14–17

God’s Ways Are Mysterious

This passage faces a hard question about life: why do outcomes sometimes seem backwards? It also shows a careful limit.

Ecclesiastes 9:1–6

Death Comes to Good and Bad

Ecclesiastes 9:1–6 speaks plainly about a hard reality. It says both good and bad people die, while also insisting that the righteous, the wise, and their works are in the hand of God.

Ecclesiastes 9:7–12

Enjoy Your Portion in This Life

This wisdom passage encourages thankful enjoyment of ordinary gifts while remembering that life is limited and often unpredictable.

Ecclesiastes 9:13–18

Wisdom Is Better than Strength

This passage shares an example the Teacher says he has seen "under the sun". It compares strength, weapons, noise, poverty and wisdom, then shows a sad truth: wisdom can do great good and still be ignored.

Ecclesiastes 10:1–20

Wisdom and Folly

Ecclesiastes 10:1-20 strings together wise sayings about folly, speech, work and rule. The passage uses strong pictures to show that a small lack of wisdom can spoil much good and bring trouble into ordinary life.

Ecclesiastes 11:1–6

Cast Your Bread upon the Waters

This wisdom passage encourages action in the middle of uncertainty. It speaks about bread, portions, rain, wind, birth and sowing to show that people do not control outcomes, yet they should still act wisely and generously.

Ecclesiastes 11:7–10

Enjoy Your Years

This wisdom passage speaks positively about life and youth, but it also gives a serious warning.

Ecclesiastes 12:1–8

Remember Your Creator

This passage urges young people to remember their Creator now, before the losses and limits of old age and death arrive.

Ecclesiastes 12:9–14

The Whole Duty of Man

These verses describe the Preacher’s careful work, the effect of wise words, a warning about many books and weary study, and a final conclusion about how people should live before God.

Wisdom of Solomon 1:1–5

Seek God with integrity rather than crooked thoughts

This passage calls people to seek God in a right way. It connects righteousness, honest thinking, trust, and wisdom, and it warns that deceitful and evil thinking pushes a person away from God.

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Wisdom of Solomon 1:6–11

No slander or secret speech escapes divine hearing

This passage warns that words are never small or hidden from God. It links speech with the heart, showing that blasphemy, murmuring, slander and lying all matter because God truly knows and hears people.

Catholic additional books

Wisdom of Solomon 1:12–16

Do not invite the death that God did not create

This wisdom passage warns people not to pull destruction towards themselves. It says God did not make death, but created things to exist, while ungodly people welcome what leads away from life.

Catholic additional books

Wisdom of Solomon 2:1–9

The ungodly reason from mortality to unrestrained pleasure

Wisdom of Solomon 2:1–9 records a speech and labels it “unsound reasoning”. The passage traces how these speakers move from fear of death and forgetting to a life devoted to immediate pleasure.

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Wisdom of Solomon 2:10–20

The ungodly propose oppression and a test of the righteous man

This passage from the Catholic additional book of Wisdom of Solomon records the words of ungodly people.

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Wisdom of Solomon 2:21–24

The narrator rejects the ungodly view of life and death

These verses give the narrator’s answer to ungodly thinking. They explain that such reasoning is not wise at all, because wickedness blinds people to God’s purpose, to holiness, and to what death means.

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Wisdom of Solomon 3:1–9

The righteous remain in God’s care beyond apparent defeat

This wisdom passage contrasts how death can look to human eyes with how God sees the righteous.

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Wisdom of Solomon 3:10–19

Faithful childlessness is set against the fruit of wrongdoing

This wisdom passage contrasts the punishment of the ungodly with the honour given to people who remain faithful to the Lord, including people without children.

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Wisdom of Solomon 4:1–6

Virtue outlasts a flourishing but rootless lineage

This passage from the Catholic additional book of Wisdom of Solomon compares two kinds of legacy.

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Wisdom of Solomon 4:7–16

A short righteous life can fulfill the measure of old age

This wisdom passage says a righteous life is not measured mainly by years lived. It teaches that understanding, purity, and being pleasing to the Lord matter more than long age, even when death comes early.

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