Ecclesiastes 7:17
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Be not over much wicked, neither be you foolish: why should you die before your time?
American King James Version (AKJV)
Be not over much wicked, neither be you foolish: why should you die before your time?
American Standard Version (ASV)
Be not overmuch wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Be not evil overmuch, and be not foolish. Why come to your end before your time?
Webster's Revision
Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldst thou die before thy time?
World English Bible
Don't be too wicked, neither be foolish. Why should you die before your time?
English Revised Version (ERV)
Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?
Clarke's Ecclesiastes 7:17 Bible Commentary
Be not overmuch wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time? - אל תרשע הרבה al tirsha harbeh. Do not multiply wickedness, do not add direct opposition to godliness to the rest of your crimes. Why should you provoke God to destroy you before your time? Perdition will come soon enough. If you will not turn from your sins, and avoid it finally, yet keep out of it as long as you can.
It cannot be supposed, except by those who are totally unacquainted with the nature of true religion, that a man may have too much holiness, too much of the life of God in his soul! And yet a learned doctor, in three sermons on this text, has endeavored to show, out-doing Solomon's infidel, "the sin, folly, and danger of being righteous overmuch." O rare darkness!
