1Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.
2I counsel you, Keep the king’s command, and that in regard to the oath of God.
3Do not be hasty to go out of his presence; do not persist in an evil thing: for he does whatever pleases him.
4For the king’s word has power; and who may say to him, What are you doing?
5Whoever keeps the commandment shall know no evil thing; and a wise man’s heart discerns time and judgment:
6for to every purpose there is a time and judgment; because the misery of man is great upon him:
7for he does not know what shall be; for who can tell him how it shall be?
8There is no man who has power over the spirit to retain the spirit; nor has he power over the day of death; and there is no discharge in war: nor shall wickedness deliver him who is 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 has power over another to his hurt.
10So I saw the wicked buried, and they came to the grave; and those who had done right went away from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city: this also is vanity.
11Because 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.
12Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and prolongs his days, yet surely I know that it shall be well with those who fear God, who fear before him:
13but it shall not be well with the wicked, nor shall he prolong his days, which are like a shadow; because he does not fear before God.
14There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.
15Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: for that shall abide with him in his labor all the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.
16When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth (for also there is one who neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes),
17then I beheld all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because however much a man labors to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yes moreover, though a wise man thinks he knows it, yet he shall not be able to find it.