Ecclesiastes 8:3-12

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

⁴For 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 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.

¹⁰So 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 a hundred times, and prolong his days, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, that fear before him: