Ecclesiastes 8:10–17

¹⁰Yes, I have seen the wicked buried and in their graves, but on the way back from the cemetery people praise them in the very city where they did their evil. It is useless.ⁱ

¹¹Why do people commit crimes so readily? Because crime is not punished quickly enough. ¹²A sinner may commit a hundred crimes and still live. Oh yes, I know what they say: “If you obey God, everything will be all right, ¹³but it will not go well for the wicked. Their life is like a shadow and they will die young, because they do not obey God.” ¹⁴But this is nonsense. Look at what happens in the world: sometimes the righteous get the punishment of the wicked, and the wicked get the reward of the righteous. I say it is useless.

¹⁵So I am convinced that we should enjoy ourselves, because the only pleasure we have in this life is eating and drinking and enjoying ourselves. We can at least do this as we labour during the life that God has given us in this world.

¹⁶Whenever I tried to become wise and learn what goes on in the world, I realized that you could stay awake night and day ¹⁷and never be able to understand what God is doing. However hard you try, you will never find out. The wise may claim to know, but they don’t.