Eccl 8
1
Who is as the wise man? and who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man`s wisdom
makes his face to shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.
2
I [counsel you], Keep the king`s command, and that in regard of the oath of God.
3
Be not hasty to go out of his presence; persist not in an evil thing: for he does
whatever pleases him.
4
For the king`s word [has] power; and who may say to him, What do you?
5
Whoso keeps the commandment shall know no evil thing; and a wise man`s heart discerns
time and judgment:
6
for to every purpose there is a time and judgment; because the misery of man is great
upon him:
7
for he knows not that which shall be; for who can tell him how it shall be?
8
There is no man that has power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither has he
power over the day of death; and there is no discharge in war: neither shall wickedness
deliver him whom is given to it.
9
All this have I seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun:
[there is] a time wherein one man has power over another to his hurt.
10
So I saw the wicked buried, and they came [to the grave]; and they that had done right
went away from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city: this also is vanity.
11
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart
of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
12
Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and prolong his [days], yet surely I know
that it shall be well with them that fear God, that fear before him:
13
but it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong [his] days, [which
are] as a shadow; because he fears not before God.
14
There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that there are righteous men to whom
it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom
it happens according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.
15
Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat,
and to drink, and to be joyful: for that shall abide with him in his labor [all] the
days of his life which God has given him under the sun.
16
When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon
the earth (for also there is that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes),
17
then I beheld all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done
under the sun: because however much a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find
it; yea moreover, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to
find it.