Ecclesiastes 8:9-15

⁹I have realized all this; I have applied my heart to every kind of work that is done under the sun. There is a time when a person oppresses another person to that person's hurt.

¹⁰So I saw the wicked buried publicly. They were taken from the holy area and buried and were praised by people in the city where they had done their wicked deeds. This also is uselessness.

¹¹When a sentence against an evil crime is not executed quickly, it entices the hearts of human beings to do evil.

¹²Even though a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives a long time, yet I know that it will be better for those who respect God, for those who stand before him and show him respect.

¹³But it will not go well for a wicked man; his life will not be prolonged. His days are like a fleeting shadow because he does not honor God.

¹⁴There is another useless vapor—something else that is done on the earth. Things happen to righteous people as they happen to wicked people, and things happen to wicked people as they happen to righteous people. I say that this also is useless vapor.

¹⁵So I recommend happiness, because a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat and drink and to be happy. It is happiness that will accompany him in his labor for all the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.