Immerse: Poets Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 272
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IMMERSE
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POETS
7:20–8:11
Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins.
Don’t eavesdrop on others—you may hear your servant curse you. For
you know how often you yourself have cursed others.
I have always tried my best to let wisdom guide my thoughts and actions. I said to myself, “I am determined to be wise.” But it didn’t work.
Wisdom is always distant and difficult to find.
I searched everywhere, determined to find wisdom and to understand the
reason for things. I was determined to prove to myself that wickedness is
stupid and that foolishness is madness.
I discovered that a seductive woman is a trap more bitter than death. Her
passion is a snare, and her soft hands are chains. Those who are pleasing to
God will escape her, but sinners will be caught in her snare.
“This is my conclusion,” says the Teacher. “I discovered this after looking at the matter from every possible angle. Though I have searched
repeatedly, I have not found what I was looking for. Only one out of a
thousand men is virtuous, but not one woman! But I did find this: God
created people to be virtuous, but they have each turned to follow their
own downward path.”
How wonderful to be wise,
to analyze and interpret things.
Wisdom lights up a person’s face,
softening its harshness.
Obey the king since you vowed to God that you would. Don’t try to
avoid doing your duty, and don’t stand with those who plot evil, for the
king can do whatever he wants. His command is backed by great power.
No one can resist or question it. Those who obey him will not be punished. Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right, for
there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble.
Indeed, how can people avoid what they don’t know is going to happen?
None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the
power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly
not rescue the wicked.
I have thought deeply about all that goes on here under the sun, where
people have the power to hurt each other. I have seen wicked people buried with honor. Yet they were the very ones who frequented the Temple
and are now praised in the same city where they committed their crimes!
This, too, is meaningless. When a crime is not punished quickly, people
