¹⁰Then too, I saw the wicked buried^h—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise^c in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.

¹¹When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong. ¹²Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go betterⁱ with those who fear God,^j who are reverent before him.^k ¹³Yet because the wicked do not fear God,^l it will not go well with them, and their days^m will not lengthen like a shadow.

¹⁴There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve.ⁿ This too, I say, is meaningless.^o ¹⁵So I commend the enjoyment of life^p, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink^q and be glad.^r Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied my mind to know wisdom^s and to observe the labor that is done on earth^t—people getting no sleep day or night—¹⁷then I saw all that God has done.^u No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.^v

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Footnotes

cSome Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint (Aquila); most Hebrew manuscripts and are forgotten

Cross references

hSee Ecc 1:11
iSee Dt 12:28
jSee Ex 1:20
k Ecc 3:14
l Ecc 3:14
m Dt 4:40; Job 5:26; Ps 34:12; Isa 65:20
nSee Job 21:7
oSee Ecc 7:15
pSee Ps 42:8
qSee Ex 32:6; See Ecc 2:3
rSee Ecc 2:1
sSee Ecc 1:17
t Ecc 1:13
uSee Job 28:3
vSee Job 28:23; Ro 11:33