Ecclesiastes 7:16 says, Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?  When Solomon warns us against being overly righteous, what does he mean.  I believe it is a warning against being self righteous, where we begin to rely on our own goodness to justify our actions.  It is good to condemn sin, but when we condemn the sinner, especially the repentant sinner, we are becoming overly, or self, righteous.  Another example would be studying the Bible.  This is a wonderful thing, but if we spend all our time studying and none practicing what the Bible teaches, the we are over righteous.  The same applies to wisdom.  If we reach the point that we know everything about the world, and especially about God, then we have become overly wise in our own mind.  We therefore will not listen to others, and possibly not even to God.  Verse seventeen says, Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?  Just as Solomon warned us not to be over much righteous and wise, here he warns us of the opposite.  We are not to be over much wicked and foolish, or we may die before our time.  Now, there are those that believe that no matter what we do, our death day is already established.  This can lead us to do foolish things, or it can keep us foolishly doing nothing.  Where is the need to act with any restraint, on the one hand, or where is the need to act with any urgency on the other.  Verse eighteen says, It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this; yea, also from this withdraw not thine hand: for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all.  We are not to just attempt to remove ourselves from the things that happen in the world, but we are to act under the leadership of God to attempt to correct them.  We must rely on the leadership of God in all things, and not on our own understanding.  We may feel that we are a very smart person, but without God's leadership, we will be acting as a fool.