Ecclesiastes 8
8
1Who is really wise? Who knows how to explain things? Wisdom makes one’s face shine, and it changes one’s grim look.
The Power of Kings Versus the Power of Death
2I ⌞advise⌟ you to obey the king’s commands because of the oath you took in God’s presence. 3Don’t be in a hurry to leave the king’s service. Don’t take part in something evil, because he can do whatever he pleases. 4Since a king’s word has such power, no one can ask him what he is doing. 5Whoever obeys his commands will avoid trouble. The mind of a wise person will know the right time and the right way ⌞to act⌟. 6There is a right time and a right way ⌞to act⌟ in every situation. Yet, a terrible human tragedy hangs over people.
7They don’t know what the future will bring. So who can tell them how things will turn out? 8No one has the power to prevent the spirit #8:8 Or “breath.” of life from leaving. No one has control over the day of his own death. There is no way to avoid the war ⌞against death⌟. Wickedness will not save wicked people ⌞from dying⌟.
Life Is Unfair
9I have seen all of this, and I have carefully considered all that is done under the sun whenever one person has authority to hurt others. 10Then I saw wicked people given an ⌞honorable⌟ burial. They used to go in and out of the holy place. They were praised in the city for doing such things. Even this is pointless.
The Need for Swift Justice
11When a sentence against a crime isn’t carried out quickly, people are encouraged to commit crimes. 12A sinner may commit a hundred crimes and yet live a long life. Still, I know with certainty that it will go well for those who fear God, because they fear him. 13But it will not go well for the wicked. They will not live any longer. Their lives are like shadows, because they don’t fear God.
Enjoy Life
14There is something being done on earth that is pointless. Righteous people suffer for what the wicked do, and wicked people get what the righteous deserve. I say that even this is pointless.
15So I recommend the enjoyment ⌞of life⌟. People have nothing better to do under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy themselves. This joy will stay with them while they work hard during their brief lives which God has given them under the sun.
16When I carefully considered how to study wisdom and how to look at the work that is done on earth (even going without sleep day and night), 17then I saw everything that God has done. No one is able to grasp the work that is done under the sun. However hard a person may search for it, he will not find ⌞its meaning⌟. Even though a wise person claims to know, he is not able to grasp it.
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Ecclesiastes 8
8
1Who is like a wise man?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
#Prov. 4:8, 9; Acts 6:15A man’s wisdom makes his face shine,
And #Deut. 28:50the sternness of his face is changed.
Obey Authorities for God’s Sake
2I say, “Keep the king’s commandment #Ex. 22:11; 2 Sam. 21:7; 1 Chr. 29:24; Ezek. 17:18; (Rom. 13:5)for the sake of your oath to God. 3#Eccl. 10:4Do not be hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand for an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him.”
4Where the word of a king is, there is power;
And #1 Sam. 13:11, 13; Job 34:18who may say to him, “What are you doing?”
5He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful;
And a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment,
6Because #Eccl. 3:1, 17for every matter there is a time and judgment,
Though the misery of man increases greatly.
7#Prov. 24:22; Eccl. 6:12For he does not know what will happen;
So who can tell him when it will occur?
8#Ps. 49:6, 7; Job 14:5No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit,
And no one has power in the day of death.
There is #Deut. 20:5–8no release from that war,
And wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it.
9All this I have seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun: There is a time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt.
Death Comes to All
10Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness, and they were #Eccl. 2:16; 9:5forgotten in the city where they had so done. This also is vanity. 11#Ps. 10:6; 50:21; Is. 26:10Because the 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. 12#Is. 65:20; (Rom. 2:5–7)Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that #(Deut. 4:40; Ps. 37:11, 18, 19; Prov. 1:32, 33; Is. 3:10; Matt. 25:34, 41)it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. 13But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
14There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it #Ps. 73:14happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the #Eccl. 2:14; 7:15; 9:1–3righteous. I said that this also is vanity.
15#Eccl. 2:24So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.
16When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, 17then I saw all the work of God, that #Job 5:9; Ps. 73:16; Eccl. 3:11; Rom. 11:33a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it.
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.