Ecclesiastes 8:1-17

Keep the King's Command

¹ Who is like a wise man?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
_a A man's wisdom makes his face shine,
And _b the ₁ sternness of his face is changed.

² I say, "Keep the king's commandment _c for the sake of your oath to God. ³ _d "Do 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 _e who may say to him, "What are you doing?" ⁵ He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful;
And a wise man's heart ₂ discerns both time and judgment, ⁶ Because _f for every matter there is a time and judgment,
Though the misery of man ₃ increases greatly. ⁷ _g For he does not know what will happen;
So who can tell him when it will occur? ⁸ _h No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit,
And no one has power in the day of death.
There is _i no 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.

Those Who Fear God Will Do Well

¹⁰ Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness, and they were _j forgotten ₄ in the city where they had so done. This also is vanity. ¹¹ _k Because 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 _l Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that _m it 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.

Man Cannot Know God's Ways

¹⁴ There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it _n happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the _o righteous. I said that this also is vanity. ¹⁵ _p So 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 _q a 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.