Ecclesiastes 8
1. Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth * the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine * , and the boldness of his face shall be changed * .
2. I counsel thee to keep * the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.
3. Be not hasty * to go out * of his sight: stand * not in an evil thing; for he doeth * whatsoever pleaseth * him.
4. Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say * unto him, What doest * thou?
5. Whoso keepeth * the commandment shall feel * no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth * both time and judgment.
6. Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
7. For he knoweth * not that which shall be: for who can tell * him when it shall be?
8. There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain * the spirit;neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver * those that are given to it.
9. All this have I seen * , and applied * my heart unto every work that is done * under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth * over another to his own hurt.
10. And so I saw * the wicked buried * , who had come * and gone * from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten * in the city where they had so done * : this is also vanity.
11. Because 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. Though a sinner * do * evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged * , yet surely I know * that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear * before him:
13. But it shall not be well with the wicked,neither shall he prolong * his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
14. There is a vanity which is done * upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth * according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth * according to the work of the righteous: I said * that this also is vanity.
15. Then I commended * mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat * , and to drink * , and to be merry * : for that shall abide * with him of his labour the days of his life,which God giveth * him under the sun.
16. When I applied * mine heart to know * wisdom, and to see * the business that is done * upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth * sleep with his eyes:)
17. Then I beheld * all the work of God, that a man cannot * find out * the work that is done * under the sun: because though a man labour * to seek it out * , yet he shall not find * it; yea further; though a wise man think * to know * it, yet shall he not be able * to find * it.
