Ecclesiastes 8

Who is like the wise man? Who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom brightens his face, and the hardness of his face is changed. I say: Keep the king’s command because of your oath before God. Do not hurry to leave his presence, and do not persist in an evil matter, for he does whatever he pleases. For the word of a king has authority, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?” Whoever keeps the command will experience no evil, and a wise heart knows the time and judgment. For every matter has a time and judgment, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him. For he does not know what will be; who can tell him how it will be? No man has power over the wind to restrain the wind, nor authority over the day of death. There is no discharge in war, and wickedness will not deliver those who practice it. All this I saw as I set my heart to every deed done under the sun, at a time when one man rules over another to his harm. Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the holy place, and they were forgotten in the city where they had acted so. This too is vanity. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not carried out quickly, the heart of mankind is fully set on doing evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and lives long, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked, nor will he prolong his days, which are like a shadow, because he does not fear before God. There is a vanity that occurs on earth: There are righteous people who receive what the deeds of the wicked deserve, and wicked people who receive what the deeds of the righteous deserve. I said that this too is vanity. So I commended joy, for there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and rejoice. This will accompany him in his toil through the days of life God has given him under the sun. When I set my heart to know wisdom and to see the task done on earth—for a man’s eyes see no sleep either day or night— then I saw all the work of God: Man cannot discover the work done under the sun. However much a man toils in seeking it, he will not discover it; even if a wise man says he knows, he cannot discover it.

Rights and attribution