Ecclesiastes 8:1-13 ▼

1 Who [is] as the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? The wisdom of man causes his face to shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

2 I [counsel]: keep the command of a king, even for the sake of an oath [to] God.

3 Do not be troubled at his presence, you may go, do not stand in an evil thing, for all that he pleases he does.

4 Where the word of a king [is] power [is], and who says to him, “What do you do?”

5 Whoever is keeping a command knows no evil thing, and time and judgment the heart of the wise knows.

6 For to every delight there is a time and a judgment, for the misfortune of man is great on him.

7 For he does not know that which will be, for when it will be who declares to him?

8 There is no man ruling over the spirit to restrain the spirit, and there is no authority over the day of death, and there is no discharge in battle, and wickedness does not deliver its possessors.

9 All this I have seen so as to give my heart to every work that has been done under the sun; a time that man has ruled over man to his own evil.

10 And so I have seen the wicked buried, and they went in, even from the Holy Place they go, and they are forgotten in the city whether they had so done. This [is] also vanity.

11 Because sentence has not been done [on] an evil work speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of man is full within them to do evil.

12 Though a sinner is doing evil one hundred [times], and prolonging [himself] for it, surely also I know that there is good to those fearing God, who fear before Him.

13 And good is not to the wicked, and he does not prolong days as a shadow, because he is not fearing before God.