ECCLESIASTES 8

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¹Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

²I counsel thee, Keep the king’s command, and that in regard of the oath of God.

³Be not hasty to go out of his presence; persist not in an evil thing: for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.

⁴Because the king’s word hath power; and who may say unto him, What doest thou?

⁵Whoso keepeth the commandment shall know no evil thing; and a wise man’s heart discerneth time and judgment:

⁶for to every purpose there is a time and judgment; because the misery of man is great upon him:

⁷for he knoweth not that which shall be; for who can tell him how it shall be?

⁸There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power over the day of death; and there is no discharge in that war: neither shall wickedness deliver him that is given to it.

⁹All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man hath power over another to his hurt.

¹⁰And withal 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.

¹¹Because 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.

¹²Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and prolong his days, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:

¹³but it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

¹⁴There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be righteous men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.

¹⁵Then 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 in his labour all the days of his life which God hath given him under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied mine 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:)

¹⁷then 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 labour 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.