|
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. |
