Proverbs: Be prudent, do right, and God will take care of you. Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice.21At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: 22“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? 23Give heed to my reproof; I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you. 24Because I have called and you refused, have stretched out my hand and no one heeded, 25and because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, 26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you, 27when panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. 28Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.29Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, 30would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof, 31therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices. 32For waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them; 33but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.” (Proverbs 1:20-33)

22The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. 23Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. 24When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. 25Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth—26when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil. 27When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, 29when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, 31rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race. 32“And now, my children, listen to me: happy are those who keep my ways. 33Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. 34Happy is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. 35For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord; 36but those who miss me injure themselves; all who hate me love death.” Proverbs 8:22-36

Ecclesiastes: Exercise, Eat Right, Die Anyway! I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the one do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness. The wise have eyes in their head, but fools walk in darkness. Yet I perceived that the same fate befalls all of them. Then I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also; why then have I been so very wise?” And I said to myself that this also is vanity. For there is no enduring remembrance of the wise or of fools, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How can the wise die just like fools? So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind. I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me —and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity. There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God; for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind. Ecclesiastes 2:12-26