Ecclesiastes 8 · קהלת

Who is like the wise man? and who knows the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom makes his face to shine, and the boldness of his face is changed.

I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment, and that in the manner of an oath of God.

Be not hasty to go out of his presence: stand not in an evil thing; for he does whatever pleases him.

For the word of a king has authority: and who may say to him, What doest thou?

He who keeps the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerns both time and method.

For every matter has its time and method, though the misery of man is great upon him.

For he knows not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

There is no man who has power over the wind to retain the wind; nor has he power over the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; nor shall wickedness deliver those who are given up to it.

All this have I seen, and have appointed my heart to every work that is done under the sun: there is a time when one man rules over another to his own hurt.

And so I saw the wicked buried, and come to their rest; but those who had done right were gone from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city: this also is vanity.

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.

Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with those who fear God, who fear before him:

but it shall not be well with the wicked, and, like the shadow, he will not prolong his days; because he does not fear before God.

There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there are just men, to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked; again, there are wicked men, to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.

So I commend mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall accompany him in his labour during the days of his life, which God gives him under the sun.

When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (how one sees no sleep with one’s eyes either by day or by night;)

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