Keep the King's Command

¹Who is like the wise?

And who knows the interpretation of a thing?

zA man's wisdom makes his face shine,

and athe hardness of his face is changed.

²I say:1 Keep the king's command, because of bGod's oath to him.2 ³Be not hasty to cgo from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. ⁴For the word of the king is supreme, and dwho may say to him, “What are you doing?” ⁵Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way.3 ⁶For there is a time and a way efor everything, although man's trouble4 lies heavy on him. ⁷For he fdoes not know what is to be, for gwho can tell him how it will be? ⁸No man has power to hretain the spirit, ior power over the day of death. There is no jdischarge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. ⁹kAll this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.

Those Who Fear God Will Do Well

¹⁰Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of lthe holy place and were mpraised5 in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.6 ¹¹Because nthe sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, othe heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. ¹²Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and pprolongs his life, yet I know that qit will be well with rthose who fear God, because they fear before him. ¹³But it will snot be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like ta shadow, because he does not fear before God.

Man Cannot Know God's Ways

¹⁴There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people uto whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people vto whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. ¹⁵And I commend joy, for man whas nothing better under the sun but to xeat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see ythe business that is done on earth, how neither zday nor night do one's eyes see sleep, ¹⁷then I saw all the work of God, that aman cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, bhe cannot find it out.

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Death Comes to All

¹But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, chow the righteous and the wise and their deeds are din the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. ²eIt is the same for all, since fthe same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,1 to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who gswears is as he who shuns an oath. ³This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that ethe same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and hmadness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. ⁴But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. ⁵For the living know that they will die, but ithe dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for jthe memory of them is forgotten. ⁶Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

Enjoy Life with the One You Love

⁷Go, keat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

⁸lLet your garments be always white. Let not moil be lacking on your head.

⁹Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your nvain2 life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your oportion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. ¹⁰Whatever your hand finds to do, pdo it with your might,3 qfor there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Wisdom Better Than Folly

¹¹rAgain I saw that under the sun sthe race is not to the swift, nor tthe battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and uchance vhappen to them all. ¹²For man wdoes not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and xlike birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are ysnared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.

¹³I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. ¹⁴There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. ¹⁵But there was found in it za poor, wise man, and he by his awisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. ¹⁶But I say that bwisdom is better than might, though cthe poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.

¹⁷The words of the wise heard in dquiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. ¹⁸eWisdom is better than weapons of war, but fone sinner destroys much good.

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