Ecclesiastes

8 Who is really a wise man, And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? The wisdom of a man lighteth up his countenance, But by defiance of countenance one is disfigured.

2 I [said], The bidding of the king observe thou, even out of regard to the oath of God.

3 Not rashly from his presence shouldst thou go: do not take thy stand in a vexatious thing,—for whatsoever he pleaseth he will do.

4 Where the word of a king is there is power,—who then may say to him, What wouldst thou do?

5 He that observeth the commandment will not notice a vexatious thing,—and of time and manner will the heart of the wise take note.

6 For to every pursuit there is a time and a manner,—when the vexation of man is great concerning it.

7 For there is no one who knoweth what shall be,—for when it shall be who will tell him?

8 No man hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit, and none hath power over the day of death, and there is no furlough in war,—neither shall lawlessness deliver them who are given thereto.

9 All this had I seen and tried to apply my heart to every work which was done under the sun,—at such time as one man had power over another man to his hurt.

10 And thereupon I considered the lawless when buried, when they had entered [their graves], that from the place of the Holy One they used to go and boast in the city that they had so done,—even this was vanity.

11 Because sentence against a wicked work is not executed speedily—on this account the heart of the sons of men is fully set within them to commit wickedness.

12 Though a sinner be committing wickedness a hundred times and continuing long in his own way yet I surely know that it shall be well to them who revere God, who stand in awe before him;

13 but well shall it not be to the lawless man, neither shall he lengthen out his days like a shadow,—because he standeth not in awe before God.

14 Here was a vain thing which was done upon the earth—that there were righteous men unto whom it happened according to the work of the lawless, and there were lawless men unto whom it happened according to the work of the righteous,—I said that even this was vanity.

15 Then extolled I gladness, in that there was nothing better for a man under the sun, than to eat and to drink and to be glad,—since that should tarry with him in his toil for the days of his life which God had given him under the sun.

16 When I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to consider the business that was done upon the earth then surely by day and by night there was one who suffered not his eyes to sleep.

17 Then I considered all the work of God, that man could not find out the work that was done under the sun, inasmuch as man toileth in seeking and yet cannot find,—yea even though the wise man should say he knoweth yet can he not find it out.