Ecclesiastes 8:4-14

⁴Because the word of a king is powerful; and who may say unto him, What doest thou?—

⁵Whoso keepeth the commandment will experience no evil thing: and a wise man's heart knoweth both time and the just consequence.

⁶Because for every pursuit there is a time and a just consequence; for the evil of man resteth heavily upon him.

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

⁸No man hath control over the spirit to detain the spirit; and there is no control over the day of death; and there is no representation in that war; and wickedness will not deliver those that practise it.

⁹All this have I seen, and directed my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time when one man ruleth over another to his own injury.

¹⁰Then also did I see the wicked buried, who had gone to their rest; but those who had acted correctly had to go away from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city. Also this is vanity.

¹¹Because the punishment against evil deeds is not executed speedily, therefore is the heart of the sons of men filled up in them to do evil.

¹²But let a sinner do evil a hundred times, and God withhold long his punishment from him; still do I truly know for certain that it will be well with those that fear God, because they are afraid of him;

¹³And that it will not be well with the wicked, and that he will not endure many days, like the shadow; because he is not afraid of God.

¹⁴There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that there are righteous men, unto whom it happeneth in accordance with the deeds of the wicked; again, there are wicked men, to whom it happeneth in accordance with the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.