Who is as the wise man? and who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face to shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.
2I counsel you, Keep the king's command, and that in regard of the oath of God.
3Don't be hasty to go out of his presence; don't persist in an evil thing: for he does whatever pleases him.
4For the king's word has power; and who may tell him, What do you?
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 on him:
7for he doesn't know that which 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; neither has he power over the day of death; and there is no discharge in war: neither shall wickedness deliver him who is given to it.
9All this have I 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 do evil a hundred times, and prolong 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, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he doesn't fear before God.
14There is a vanity which is done on 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 on the earth (for also there is that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes),
17then I saw all the work of God, that man can't find out the work that is done under the sun: because however much a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yes moreover, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.