Ecclesiastes 8

Keep the King's Command

1Who
is like the wise?
And who knows
the interpretation
of a thing?
A man's wisdom makes his face
shine,
and the hardness
of his face
is changed.

2 I say:
^[a] Keep the king's command,
because
of God's oath
to him.^[b]

3Be not hasty
to go
from his presence.
Do not
take your stand
in an evil cause,
for he does
whatever he pleases.

4For the word
of the king
is supreme,
and who may say
to him,
"What are you doing?"

5Whoever keeps
a command
will know
no evil thing,
and the wise heart
will know
the proper time
and the just way.

6For there is
a time and a way
for everything,
although man's trouble
^[c] lies heavy
on him.

7For he does
not know what is
to be,
for who can
tell him how it will be?

8No man
has power
to retain the spirit,
or power
over the day
of death.
There is
no discharge
from war,
nor will wickedness
deliver those
who are given
to it.

9All this
I observed
while applying
my heart to all
that is done
under the sun,
when man had power
over man
to his hurt.

Those Who Fear God Will Do Well

10Then I saw
the wicked buried.
They used
to go
in and out
of the holy place
and were praised^[d]
in the city
where they
had done such things.
This also
is vanity.

11Because
the sentence
against an evil deed
is not
executed speedily,
the heart
of the children
of man
is fully set
to do evil.

12Though
a sinner
does evil
a hundred times
and prolongs his life,
yet I know
that it will be well
with those
who fear God,
because they fear
before him.

13But it will not
be well
with the wicked,
neither
will he prolong
his days
like a shadow,
because he does
not fear
before God.

Man Cannot Know God's Ways

14There is
a vanity
that takes place
on earth,
that there are
righteous people to whom
it happens
according
to the deeds
of the wicked,
and there are
wicked people
to whom it happens
according
to the deeds
of the righteous.
I said that this
also is vanity.

15And I commend joy,
for man
has no good thing
under the sun
but to eat and
drink and be joyful,
for this will go
with him
in his toil
through the days
of his life
that God
has given him
under the sun.

16When
I applied my heart
to know wisdom,
and to see
the business that
is done on earth,
how neither day nor night
do one's eyes
see sleep,

17then I saw
all the work
of God,
that man cannot
find out
the work that is done
under the sun.
However much
man may toil
in seeking,
he will not
find it out.
Even though
a wise man claims
to know,
he cannot find it out.