Ecclesiastes 8
1 Who [is] as the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? The wisdom of man causes his face to shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.
Who is like the wise man? Who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.
2 I [counsel]: keep the command of a king, even for the sake of an oath [to] God.
Keep the king’s command, I say, because of your oath before God.
3 Do not be troubled at his presence, you may go, do not stand in an evil thing, for all that he pleases he does.
Do not hasten to leave his presence, and do not persist in a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases.
4 Where the word of a king [is] power [is], and who says to him, “What do you do?”
For the king’s word is supreme, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
5 Whoever is keeping a command knows no evil thing, and time and judgment the heart of the wise knows.
Whoever keeps his command will come to no harm, and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure.
6 For to every delight there is a time and a judgment, for the misfortune of man is great on him.
For there is a right time and procedure to every purpose, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him.
7 For he does not know that which will be, for when it will be who declares to him?
Since no one knows what will happen, who can tell him what is to come?
8 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 does not deliver its possessors.
As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
9 All this I have seen so as to give my heart to every work that has been done under the sun; a time that man has ruled over man to his own evil.
All this I have seen, applying my mind to every deed that is done under the sun; there is a time when one man lords it over another to his own detriment.
10 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 [is] also vanity.
Then too, I saw the burial of the wicked who used to go in and out of the holy place, and they were praised in the city where they had done so. This too is futile.
11 Because sentence has not been done [on] an evil work speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of man is full within them to do evil.
When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil.
12 Though a sinner is doing evil one hundred [times], and prolonging [himself] for it, surely also I know that there is good to those fearing God, who fear before Him.
Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I also know that it will go well with those who fear God, who are reverent in His presence.
13 And good is not to the wicked, and he does not prolong days as a shadow, because he is not fearing before God.
Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.
14 There is a vanity that has been done on the earth, that there are righteous ones to whom it is coming according to the work of the wicked, and there are wicked ones to whom it is coming according to the work of the righteous. I have said that this [is] also vanity.
There is a futility that is done on the earth: There are righteous men who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked men who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.
15 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 remains with him of his labor the days of his life that God has given to him under the sun.
So I commended the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be merry. For this joy will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.
16 When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that has been done on the earth (for there is also a spectator in whose eyes sleep is not by day and by night),
When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the task that one performs on the earth—though his eyes do not see sleep in the day or even in the night—
17 then I considered all the work of God, that man is not able to find out the work that has been done under the sun, because though man labor to seek, yet he does not find; and even though the wise man speak of knowing he is not able to find.
I saw every work of God, and that a man is unable to comprehend the work that is done under the sun. Despite his efforts to search it out, he cannot find its meaning; even if the wise man claims to know, he is unable to comprehend.
