< Ecclesiastes 8 >
1 Who [is] as the wise [man]? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.
2 I [counsel thee] to keep the king's commandment, and [that] in regard of the oath of God.
3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatever pleaseth him.
4 Where the word of a king [is], [there is] power: and who may say to him, what doest thou?
5 He who keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.
6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man [is] great upon him.
7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
8 [There is] no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither [hath he] power in the day of death: and [there is] no discharge in [that] war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are 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 in which one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this [is] also 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 doeth evil a hundred times, and his [days] are prolonged, yet surely I know that it will be well with them that fear God, who fear before him:
13 But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong [his] days, [which are] as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there are just [men], to whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked [men], to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also [is] vanity.
15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labor the days of his life, which God giveth 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 seeth sleep with his eyes: )
17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man may labor to seek [it] out, yet he shall not find [it]; yes further; though a wise [man] thinketh to know [it], yet shall he not be able to find [it].
