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Ecclesiastes

ESV

Chapter 8

1Who is like the wise man? Who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed. 2I counsel you to keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath. 3Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. 4For the word of the king is powerful, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?” 5Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and a wise heart will know the proper time and procedure. 6For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy upon him. 7For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? 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. 9All this I have seen, applying my mind to all that is done under the sun, when man has dominated man to his harm. 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 so done. This also is vanity. 11Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. 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. 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. 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. 15And I commend joy, for there is nothing better for a man under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will accompany him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him 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 one’s eyes see sleep, 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.

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