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
1 WHO IS like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his countenance is changed.
2 I counsel you to keep the king's command, and that in regard to the oath of God [by which you swore to him loyalty]. [II Sam. 21:7.]
3 Be not panic-stricken and hasty to get out of his presence. Persist not in an evil thing, for he does whatever he pleases.
4 For the word of a king is authority and power, and who can say to him, What are you doing?
5 Whoever observes the [king's] command will experience no harm, and a wise man's mind will know both when and what to do.
6 For every purpose and matter has its [right] time and judgment, although the misery and wickedness of man lies heavily upon him [who rebels against the king].
7 For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how and when it will be?
8 There is no man who has power over the spirit to retain the breath of life, neither has he power over the day of death; and there is no discharge in battle [against death], neither will wickedness deliver those who are its possessors and given to it.
9 All this have I seen while applying my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his own hurt or to the other man's.
10 And so I saw the wicked buried–those who had come and gone out of the holy place [but did not thereby escape their doom], and they are [praised and] forgotten in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity (emptiness, falsity, vainglory, and futility)!
11 Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, the hearts of the sons of men are fully set to do evil.
12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days [seemingly] are prolonged [in his wickedness], yet surely I know that it will be well with those who [reverently] fear God, who revere and worship Him, realizing His continual presence. [Ps. 37:11, 18, 19; Isa. 3:10, 11; Matt. 25:34.]
13 But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not [reverently] fear and worship God. [Matt. 25:41.]
14 Here also is a futility that goes on upon the earth: there are righteous men who fare as though they were wicked, and wicked men who fare as though they were righteous. I say that this also is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility)!
15 Then I commended enjoyment, because a man has no better thing under the sun [without God] than to eat and to drink and to be joyful, for that will remain with him in his toil through the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.
16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to see the business activity and the painful effort that take place upon the earth–how neither day nor night some men's eyes sleep–
17 Then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun–because however much a man may toil in seeking, yet he will not find it out; yes, more than that, though a wise man thinks and claims he knows, yet will he not be able to find it out. [Deut. 29:29; Rom. 11:33.]
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