Ecclesiastes 8
8
1Only the wise know what things really mean. Wisdom makes them smile and makes their frowns disappear.
Obey the King
2Do what the king says,#8.2 Some ancient translations Do what the king says; Hebrew unclear. and don't make any rash promises to God. 3The king can do anything he likes, so depart from his presence; don't stay in such a dangerous place. 4The king acts with authority, and no one can challenge what he does. 5As long as you obey his commands, you are safe, and a wise person knows how and when to do it. 6There is a right time and a right way to do everything, but we know so little! 7None of us knows what is going to happen, and there is no one to tell us. 8No one can keep from dying or put off the day of death. That is a battle we cannot escape; we cannot cheat our way out.
The Wicked and the Righteous
9I saw all this when I thought about the things that are done in this world, a world where some people have power and others have to suffer under them. 10Yes, I have seen the wicked buried and in their graves, but on the way back from the cemetery people praise them in the very city where they did their evil. It is useless.#8.10 Verse 10 in Hebrew is unclear.
11Why do people commit crimes so readily? Because crime is not punished quickly enough. 12A sinner may commit a hundred crimes and still live. Oh yes, I know what they say: “If you obey God, everything will be all right, 13but it will not go well for the wicked. Their life is like a shadow and they will die young, because they do not obey God.” 14But this is nonsense. Look at what happens in the world: sometimes the righteous get the punishment of the wicked, and the wicked get the reward of the righteous. I say it is useless.
15So I am convinced that we should enjoy ourselves, because the only pleasure we have in this life is eating and drinking and enjoying ourselves. We can at least do this as we labour during the life that God has given us in this world.
16Whenever I tried to become wise and learn what goes on in the world, I realized that you could stay awake night and day 17and never be able to understand what God is doing. However hard you try, you will never find out. The wise may claim to know, but they don't.
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
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.