23 All this I have 1proved by wisdom.

vI said, “I will be wise”;

But it was far from me.

24 wAs for that which is far off and xexceedingly deep,

Who can find it out?

25 yI applied my heart to know,

To search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things,

To know the wickedness of folly,

Even of foolishness and madness.

26 zAnd I find more bitter than death

The woman whose heart is snares and nets,

Whose hands are fetters.

2He who pleases God shall escape from her,

But the sinner shall be trapped by her.

27 “Here is what I have found,” says athe Preacher,

“Adding one thing to the other to find out the reason,

28 Which my soul still seeks but I cannot find:

bOne man among a thousand I have found,

But a woman among all these I have not found.

29 Truly, this only I have found:

cThat God made man upright,

But dthey have sought out many schemes.”

8 Who is like a wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing?

aA man’s wisdom makes his face shine,

And bthe 1sternness of his face is changed.

Obey Authorities for God’s Sake

2 I say, “Keep the king’s commandment cfor the sake of your oath to God. 3 dDo not be hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand for an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him.”

4 Where the word of a king is, there is power;

And ewho may say to him, “What are you doing?”

5 He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful;

And a wise man’s heart 2discerns both time and judgment,

6 Because ffor every matter there is a time and judgment,

Though the misery of man 3increases greatly.

7 gFor he does not know what will happen;

So who can tell him when it will occur?

8 hNo one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit,

And no one has power in the day of death.

There is ino release from that war,

And wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it.

9 All this I have seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun: There is a time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt.

Death Comes to All

10 Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness, and they were jforgotten 4in the city where they had so done. This also is vanity. 11 kBecause the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. 12 lThough a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that mit will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. 13 But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

14 There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it nhappens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the orighteous. I said that this also is vanity.

15 pSo I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.

16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, 17 then I saw all the work of God, that qa man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it.