Ecclesiastes 8

Revised Geneva Translation

8 Who is as the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? The wisdom of a man makes his face shine. And the strength of his face shall be changed.

² I say, “Guard to the commandment of the king, and the word of your oath to God.

³ “Do not hurry to go forth from His sight. Do not stand in an evil thing. For He will do whatever pleases Him.”

⁴ Wherever the word of the king is, there is power. And who shall say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵ He who keeps the commandment shall know no evil thing. And the heart of the wise shall know the time and judgment.

⁶ For to every purpose there is a time and judgment, because the misery of man is great upon him.

⁷ For he does not know that which shall be. For who can tell him when it shall be?

⁸ Man is not Lord over the spirit, to retain the spirit. Nor does he have power on the day of death or deliverance in the battle. Nor shall wickedness deliver its possessors.

⁹ All this have I seen and have given my heart to every work which is wrought under the Sun. And I saw a time that man rules over man to his own hurt.

¹⁰ And likewise I saw the wicked buried, and they returned. And those who came from the holy place were still forgotten in the city where they had done right. This also is vanity.

¹¹ Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. Therefore, the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil.

¹² Even if a sinner does evil a hundred times, and God prolongs his days, I still know that it shall be well with those who fear the LORD and do reverence before Him.

¹³ But it shall not be well to the wicked. Nor shall he prolong his days. He shall be like a shadow, because he did not fear before God.

¹⁴ There is a vanity which is done upon the Earth, so that there are righteous men to whom it comes according to the work of the wicked. And there are wicked men to whom it comes according to the work of the righteous. I also thought that this is vanity.

¹⁵ And I praised joy. For there is no goodness to man under the Sun, except to eat and to drink and to rejoice. For this is joined to his labor during his life that God has given him under the Sun.

¹⁶ When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to behold the business that is done on Earth — that the eyes of man takes sleep at neither day nor night —

¹⁷ then I beheld the whole work of God: that man cannot find out the work that is wrought under the Sun which man labors to seek and cannot find. Yea, and though the wise man may say he knows it, he cannot find it.