| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed. | 1How wonderful to be wise, to analyze and interpret things. Wisdom lights up a person’s face, softening its harshness. Obedience to the King |
| 2I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him. | 2Obey the king since you vowed to God that you would. |
| 3Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. | 3Don’t try to avoid doing your duty, and don’t stand with those who plot evil, for the king can do whatever he wants. |
| 4For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” | 4His command is backed by great power. No one can resist or question it. |
| 5Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. | 5Those who obey him will not be punished. Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right, |
| 6For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. | 6for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble. |
| 7For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? | 7Indeed, how can people avoid what they don’t know is going to happen? |
| 8No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. | 8None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked. The Wicked and the Righteous |
| 9All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt. | 9I have thought deeply about all that goes on here under the sun, where people have the power to hurt each other. |
| 10Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. | 10I have seen wicked people buried with honor. Yet they were the very ones who frequented the Temple and are now praised in the same city where they committed their crimes! This, too, is meaningless. |
| 11Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. | 11When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong. |
| 12Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. | 12But even though a person sins a hundred times and still lives a long time, I know that those who fear God will be better off. |
| 13But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God. | 13The wicked will not prosper, for they do not fear God. Their days will never grow long like the evening shadows. |
| 14There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. | 14And this is not all that is meaningless in our world. In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so meaningless! |
| 15And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. | 15So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world than to eat, drink, and enjoy life. That way they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun. |
| 16When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, | 16In my search for wisdom and in my observation of people’s burdens here on earth, I discovered that there is ceaseless activity, day and night. |
| 17then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out. | 17I realized that no one can discover everything God is doing under the sun. Not even the wisest people discover everything, no matter what they claim. |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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