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.
Footnotes
Theological Realism
Ecclesiastes 8:14–17 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 35:08 • ID: 3425The Prophesied Kingdom — Part One
Ezra 1:1 – Malachi 4:6 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 36:31 • ID: 2390The Prophesied Kingdom — Part Two
Ezra 1:1 – Malachi 4:6 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 43:38 • ID: 2391The Case against Self-Sufficiency
Ecclesiastes 8:1–9:18 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 45:16 • ID: 2299Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.