Ecclesiastes 8

Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? ^aa man’s wisdom ^bmaketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed. ²I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment, and that ^cin regard of ^dthe oath of God. ^3eBe not hasty ^fto go out of his sight: ^gstand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. ⁴Where the word of a king is, there is ^hpower: and ⁱwho may say unto him, What doest thou? ⁵Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and ^jjudgment.

⁶Because ^kto every purpose there is time and ^jjudgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him. ⁷For ^lhe knoweth not that which shall be: for ^mwho can tell him when it shall be? ⁸There is no man that hath ⁿpower over the spirit ^oto retain the spirit; neither hath he ^hpower in the day of death: and there is no ^pdischarge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver ^qthose that are 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 ruleth over another to his own hurt. ¹⁰And ^rso I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from ^sthe place of the holy, and ^tthey were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.

^11uBecause sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men ^xis fully set in them to do evil. ¹²Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and ^yhis ^zadays be prolonged, yet surely I know that ^ait shall be well ^bwith them that fear God, which fear before him: ¹³but it ^bcshall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are ^das a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

¹⁴There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, ^eunto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, ^fto whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity. ¹⁵Then I commended mirth, because ^ga man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall ^habide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the ⁱbusiness that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:) ¹⁷then I beheld all the work of God, that ^ka man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further, though a wise man think to know it, ^lyet shall he not be able to find it.

IX.