Ecclesiastes 8:3-16

³Haste thou not to go away from his face, and dwell thou not in evil work. For he shall do all thing, that he will;

⁴and his word is full of power, and no man may say to him, Why doest thou so?

⁵He that keepeth the commandment of God, shall not feel anything of evil; the heart of a wise man understandeth time and answer.

⁶Time and season is to each work; and much torment is of a man,

⁷for he knoweth not the things passed, and he may not know by any messenger the things to come.

⁸It is not in the power of man to forbid the spirit, that is, his soul, from going out from the body, neither he hath power in the day of death, neither he is suffered to have rest, when the battle nigheth; neither wickedness shall save a wicked man.

⁹I beheld all these things, and I gave mine heart in all works, that be done under the sun. Sometime a man is lord of a man, to his evil.

¹⁰I saw wicked men buried, which, when they lived yet, were in holy place; and they were praised in the city, as men of just or rightwise works; but also this is vanity.

¹¹Forsooth for the sentence is not brought forth soon against evil men, the sons of men do evils without any dread.

¹²Nevertheless of that, that a sinner doeth evil an hundred times, and is suffered by patience, I knew that good it shall be to men dreading God, that reverence his face, or presence.

¹³Good be not to the wicked man, neither his days be made long; but pass they as shadow, that dread not the face of the Lord.

¹⁴Also another vanity there is, that is done on earth. Just or rightwise men there be, to whom evils come, as if they did the works of wicked men; and wicked men there be, that be as secure, as if they had done the deeds of just or rightwise men; but I deem also this most vain.

¹⁵Therefore I praised gladness, that no good was to a man under the sun, but to eat, and drink, and to be joyful; and that he should bear away with himself only this of his travail, in the days of his life, which God gave to him under the sun.

¹⁶And I setted mine heart to know wisdom, and to understand the parting, which is turned in earth. A man is, that by days and nights, taketh not sleep with his eyes.