Ecclesiastes 7-8

Holman Christian Standard Bible

Wise Sayings

¹⁴ In the day of prosperity be joyful,^(O) but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other,^(P) so that man cannot discover anything that will come after him.

Avoiding Extremes

¹⁵ In my futile life^[a] I have seen everything:^(Q) there is a righteous man who perishes in spite of his righteousness,^(R) and there is a wicked man who lives long in spite of his evil.^{(S) 16} Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise.^(T) Why should you destroy yourself? ¹⁷ Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time?^{(U) 18} It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.

²¹ Don’t pay attention^[b] to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you,^{(X) 22} for you know that many times you yourself have cursed others.

What the Teacher Found

²³ I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me. ²⁴ What exists is beyond reach and very deep.^(Y) Who can discover it? ²⁵ I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and seek wisdom^(Z) and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness. ²⁶ And I find more bitter than death^(AA) the woman who is a trap,^(AB) her heart a net, and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her. ²⁷ “Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation, ²⁸ which my soul continually searches for but does not find: among a thousand people I have found one true man, but among all these I have not found a true woman.^{(AC) 29} Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright,^(AD) but they pursued many schemes.”

Wisdom, Authorities, and Inequities

8 Who is like the wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.^(AE)

² Keep^[c] the king’s command because of your oath made before God.^{(AF) 3} Do not be in a hurry; leave his presence,^(AG) and don’t persist in a bad cause, since he will do whatever he wants. ⁴ For the king’s word is authoritative, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”^{(AH) 5} The one who keeps a command will not experience anything harmful,^(AI) and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure. ⁶ For every activity there is a right time and procedure,^(AJ) even though man’s troubles are heavy on him. ⁷ Yet no one knows what will happen^(AK) because who can tell him what will happen? ⁸ No one has authority over the wind^[d] to restrain it,^(AL) and there is no authority over the day of death;^(AM) there is no furlough in battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape. ⁹ All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one man has authority over another to his harm.

¹⁰ In such circumstances, I saw the wicked buried. They came and went from the holy place,^(AN) and they were praised^[e] in the city where they did so. This too is futile. ¹¹ Because the sentence against a criminal act is not carried out quickly,^(AO) the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit crime. ¹² Although a sinner commits crime a hundred times and prolongs his life,^(AP) yet I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people,^(AQ) for they are reverent before Him. ¹³ However, it will not go well with the wicked,^(AR) and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow,^(AS) for they are not reverent before God.

¹⁴ There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve,^(AT) and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve.^(AU) I say that this too is futile. ¹⁵ So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for man under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself,^(AV) for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

¹⁶ When I applied my mind to know wisdom^(AW) and to observe the activity that is done on the earth (even though one’s eyes do not close in sleep day or night), ¹⁷ I observed all the work of God and concluded that man is unable to discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though a man labors hard to explore it, he cannot find it;^(AX) even if the wise man claims to know it, he is unable to discover it.