|
Chapter 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 farther; though a wise man think to know it,
yet shall he not be able to find it. |
