Ecclesiastes 8
1 Who can compare to the truly wise? Who knows how to interpret things? If you have wisdom your face lights up, and your stern look is softened.
Who [is] as the wise? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? The wisdom of man causeth his face to shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.
2 My advice is to do what the king says, since that's what you promised God.
I pray thee, the commandment of a king keep, even for the sake of the oath of God.
3 Don't be quick to walk out on the king without thinking what you're doing, and don't get involved with those who plot against him, for the king can do what he pleases.
Be not troubled at his presence, thou mayest go, stand not in an evil thing, for all that he pleaseth he doth.
4 The king's orders have supreme authority—who is going to question him, saying, “What are you doing?”
Where the word of a king [is] power [is], and who saith to him, 'What dost thou?'
5 Those who follow his commands will not be involved in doing evil. Wise people think, recognizing there's a right time, and a right way.
Whoso is keeping a command knoweth no evil thing, and time and judgment the heart of the wise knoweth.
6 For there's a right time and a right way for everything, even when things are going badly for you.
For to every delight there is a time and a judgment, for the misfortune of man is great upon him.
7 No one knows what's going to happen, so who can say what the future holds?
For he knoweth not that which shall be, for when it shall be who declareth to him?
8 No one can hold onto the breath of life; no one can prevent the day when they die. There's no way of escaping that battle, and the wicked won't be saved by their wickedness!
There is no man ruling over the spirit to restrain the spirit, and there is no authority over the day of death, and there is no discharge in battle, and wickedness delivereth not its possessors.
9 I examined all these things, and thought about all that happens here on earth, and the damage that's caused when people dominate others.
All this I have seen so as to give my heart to every work that hath been done under the sun; a time that man hath ruled over man to his own evil.
10 Yes, I have seen wicked people buried with great honor. They used to go to the holy place, and were praised in the very city where they did their evil. This is hard to understand!
And so I have seen the wicked buried, and they went in, even from the Holy Place they go, and they are forgotten in the city whether they had so done. This also [is] vanity.
11 When people are not punished quickly for their crimes they are even more determined to do wrong.
Because sentence hath not been done [on] an evil work speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of man is full within them to do evil.
12 Even though a sinner may do wrong a hundred times, and live a long life, I'm convinced that those who do what God says will be better off.
Though a sinner is doing evil a hundred [times], and prolonging [himself] for it, surely also I know that there is good to those fearing God, who fear before Him.
13 In fact, the wicked will not live long, passing like a shadow, because they refuse to follow God.
And good is not to the wicked, and he doth not prolong days as a shadow, because he is not fearing before God.
14 Another thing that is hard to understand is this: good people are treated as the wicked should be, and the wicked are treated as good people should be. As I say, this is difficult to comprehend!
There is a vanity that hath been done upon the earth, that there are righteous ones unto whom it is coming according to the work of the wicked, and there are wicked ones unto whom it is coming according to the work of the righteous. I have said that this also [is] vanity.
15 So I recommend enjoying life. There's nothing better for us here on earth than to eat and drink and be happy. Such an attitude will go with us as we work, and as we live our lives that God gives us here on earth.
And I have praised mirth because there is no good to man under the sun except to eat and to drink, and to rejoice, and it remaineth with him of his labour the days of his life that God hath given to him under the sun.
16 When I applied my mind to discovering wisdom and observing everything people do here on earth, I couldn't get any sleep, day or night.
When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that hath been done on the earth, (for there is also a spectator in whose eyes sleep is not by day and by night),
17 Then I studied everything God does, and I realized that no one can fully understand what happens here. However, hard they try, however wise they claim to be, they can't really comprehend it.
then I considered all the work of God, that man is not able to find out the work that hath been done under the sun, because though man labour to seek, yet he doth not find; and even though the wise man speak of knowing he is not able to find.
