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.
Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) 8
8
1Who is like a wise one? And who knows the meaning of a matter? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.
2I say, “Guard the sovereign’s command because of the oath before Elohim.
3Do not be in a hurry to go from his presence. Do not take a stand in an evil matter, for he does whatever he pleases.”
4Where the word of a sovereign is, there is power. And who says to him, “What are you doing?”
5He who guards the command knows no evil matter. And the heart of the wise discerns both time and right-ruling,
6Because for every matter there is a time and right-ruling, though the trouble of man is heavy upon him.
7For he does not know what shall be; so who declares to him when it shall be?
8No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, and no one has power in the day of death. There is no discharge in battle, and wrongness does not release those who are given to it.
9All this I have seen; I applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun: There is a time in which a man rules over a man for his evil.
10And so I saw the wrong ones buried, and they came and went from the place of set-apartness, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done. That too is futile.
11Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is filled in them to do evil.
12Although a sinner is doing evil a hundred times, and his life is prolonged, yet I know that there is good to those who fear Elohim, who fear before Him.
13But it shall not be well with the wrong one, nor would he prolong his days as a shadow, because he does not fear before Elohim.
14There is a futility which has been done on earth, that there are righteous ones who get according to the deeds of the wrong. And there are wrong ones who get according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this too is futile.
15Therefore I praised enjoyment, because there is no good to man except to eat, and to drink, and to rejoice – and it remains with him in his labour for the days of his life which Elohim has given him under the sun.
16When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night,
17then I saw all the work of Elohim, that man is unable to find out the work that has been done under the sun. For though a man labours to seek, yet he does not find it. And even though a wise one claims to know, he is unable to find it.
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