Ecclesiastes Chapter 8 (Index)

001  Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.

002  I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.

003  Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.

004  Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?

005  Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.

006  Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.

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

008  There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

009  All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.

010  And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.

011  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.

012  Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:

013  But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

014  There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.

015  Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.

016  When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)

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