[[Ecclesiastes 7|<< Ecclesiastes 7]] | [[Ecclesiastes|Ecclesiastes]] | [[Ecclesiastes 9|Ecclesiastes 9 >>]] ### Ecclesiastes 8 1 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 boldness of his face shall be changed. ^1 2 I _counsel_ _thee_ to keep the king's commandment, and _that_ in regard of the oath of God. ^2 3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he does whatsoever pleases him. ^3 4 Where the word of a king _is_, _there_ _is_ power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou? ^4 5 Whoso keeps the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment. ^5 6 ¶ Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man _is_ great upon him. ^6 7 For he knows not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be? ^7 8 _There_ _is_ no man that has 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. ^8 9 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 rules over another to his own hurt. ^9 10 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. ^10 11 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. ^11 12 ¶ Though a sinner do evil a 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: ^12 13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong _his_ days, _which_ _are_ as a shadow; because he fears not before God. ^13 14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just _men_, unto whom it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked _men_, to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also _is_ vanity. ^14 15 Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labor the days of his life, which God gives him under the sun. ^15 16 ¶ 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 sees sleep with his eyes:) ^16 17 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 labor to seek _it_ out, yet he shall not find _it;_ yea further; though a wise _man_ think to know _it_, yet shall he not be able to find _it_. ^17