1Who is like a wise person? Who knows how to explain things? A person’s wisdom makes their face bright. It softens the look on their face.
Obey the king
2I’m telling you to obey the king’s command. You promised to serve him. You made a promise to God.3Don’t be in a hurry to quit your job in the palace. Don’t stand up for something the king doesn’t like. He’ll do anything he wants to.4The king has the final word. So who can ask him, ‘What are you doing?’5No one who obeys his command will be harmed. Those who are wise will know the proper time and way to approach him.6There’s a proper time and way for people to do everything. That’s true even though a person might be suffering greatly.7No one knows what lies ahead. So who can tell someone else what’s going to happen?8No one can stop the wind from blowing. And no one has the power to decide when they will die. No one is let out of the army in times of war. And evil won’t let go of those who practise it.9I understood all these things. I used my mind to study everything that’s done on earth. A man sometimes makes life hard for others. But he ends up hurting himself.10I also saw sinful people being buried. They used to come and go from the place of worship. And others praised them in the city where they worshipped. That doesn’t have any meaning either.11Sometimes the sentence for a crime isn’t carried out quickly. So people make plans to commit even more crimes.12An evil person may be guilty of a hundred crimes. Yet they may still live a long time. But I know that things will go better with those who have great respect for God.13Sinful people don’t respect God. So things won’t go well with them. Like a shadow, they won’t be around very long.14Here’s something else on this earth that doesn’t have any meaning. Sometimes godly people get what sinful people should receive. And sinful people get what godly people should receive. Here’s what I’m telling you. That doesn’t have any meaning either.15So I advise everyone to enjoy life. A person on this earth can’t do anything better than eat and drink and be glad. Then they will enjoy their work. They’ll be happy all the days of the life God has given them on earth.16I used my mind to understand what it really means to be wise. I wanted to observe the hard work people do on earth. They don’t close their eyes and go to sleep day or night.17I saw everything God has done. No one can understand what happens on earth. People might try very hard to figure it out. But they still can’t discover what it all means. Wise people might claim they know. But they can’t really understand it either.
Ecclesiastes 8
English Standard Version
Keep the King’s Command
1Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed. (De 28:50; Pr 4:8; Pr 21:29; Ac 6:15)2I say:[1] Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him.[2] (Ex 22:11; 2Sa 21:7; 1Ki 2:43; 2Ch 36:13; Eze 17:18)3Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. (Ec 10:4)4For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” (Job 9:12; Da 4:35)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 for everything, although man’s trouble[4] lies heavy on him. (Ec 3:1; Ec 3:17)7For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? (Pr 24:22; Ec 3:22; Ec 6:12; Ec 9:12; Ec 10:14)8No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. (De 20:5; Job 14:5; Ec 3:19; Ec 9:11)9All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt. (Ec 1:13)
Those Who Fear God Will Do Well
10Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised[5] in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.[6] (Ne 11:1; Pr 10:7; Ec 9:5; Mt 24:15)11Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. (Es 7:5; Ps 10:6; Ps 50:21; Isa 26:10; Ac 5:3; Ro 2:4; 2Pe 3:9)12Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. (De 12:25; Ps 37:11; Ps 37:18; Pr 1:33; Ec 7:15; Isa 3:10; Isa 65:20; Mt 25:34)13But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God. (Job 14:2; Ec 6:12; Isa 3:11)
Man Cannot Know God’s Ways
14There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. (Job 21:7; Ps 17:9; Ps 73:3; Ps 73:12; Ec 2:14; Ec 7:15; Jer 12:1)15And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat 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. (1Ki 4:20; Ec 2:24)16When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, (Ps 127:2; Ec 1:13; Ec 3:10)17then I saw all the work of God, that man 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, he cannot find it out. (Ps 73:16; Pr 25:2; Ec 3:11)