Ecclesiastes 8

New King James Version

Obey Authorities for God’s Sake

8 Who is like a wise man?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
^(A)A man’s wisdom makes his face shine,
And ^(B)the ^[a]sternness of his face is changed.

Obey Authorities for God’s Sake

²I say, “Keep the king’s commandment ^(C)for the sake of your oath to God. ³^(D)Do not be hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand for an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him.”

⁴Where the word of a king is, there is power;
And ^(E)who may say to him, “What are you doing?”
⁵He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful;
And a wise man’s heart ^[b]discerns both time and judgment,
⁶Because ^(F)for every matter there is a time and judgment,
Though the misery of man ^[c]increases greatly.
⁷^(G)For he does not know what will happen;
So who can tell him when it will occur?
⁸^(H)No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit,
And no one has power in the day of death.
There is ^(I)no release from that war,
And wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it.

⁹All this I have seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun: There is a time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt.

Death Comes to All

¹⁰Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness, and they were ^(J)forgotten^[d] in the city where they had so done. This also is vanity. ¹¹^(K)Because the 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^(L)Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that ^(M)it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. ¹³But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

¹⁴There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it ^(N)happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the ^(O)righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

¹⁵^(P)So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, ¹⁷then I saw all the work of God, that ^(Q)a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it.