Ecclesiastes 8

8Who 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

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

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

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

⁵He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful;

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

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

Though the misery of man ³increases greatly.

^7gFor he does not know what will happen;

So who can tell him when it will occur?

^8hNo 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.

⁹All 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

¹⁰Then 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. ^11kBecause 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. ^12lThough 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. ¹³But 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.

¹⁴There 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.

^15pSo 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.

¹⁶When 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, ¹⁷then 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.