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 face is changed.
8:2 I say, “Keep the king’s command!” because of the oath to God.
8:3 Don’t be hasty to go out of his presence. Don’t persist in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him,
8:4 for the king’s word is supreme. Who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
8:5 Whoever keeps the commandment shall not come to harm, and his wise heart will know the time and procedure.
8:6 For there is a time and procedure for every purpose, although the misery of man is heavy on him.
8:7 For he doesn’t know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?
8:8 There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.
8:9 All this have I seen, and applied 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 hurt.
8:10 So I saw the wicked buried. Indeed they came also from holiness. They went and were forgotten in the city where they did this. This also is vanity.
8:11 Because 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.
8:12 Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.
8:13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow; because he doesn’t fear God.
8:14 There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.
8:15 Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: for that will accompany him in his labor all the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.
8:16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (for also there is that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes),
8:17 then I saw all the work of God, that man can’t find out the work that is done under the sun, because however much a man labors to seek it out, yet he won’t find it. Yes even though a wise man thinks he can comprehend it, he won’t be able to find it.
9:1 For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them.
9:2 All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn’t sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears an oath.
9:3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event to all: yes also, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
9:4 For to him who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
9:5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything, neither do they have any more a reward; for their memory is forgotten.
9:6 Also their love, their hatred, and their envy has perished long ago; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.
9:7 Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.
9:8 Let your garments be always white, and don’t let your head lack oil.
9:9 Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity: for that is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you labor under the sun.
9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.
9:11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.
9:12 For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.
9:13 I have also seen wisdom under the sun in this way, and it seemed great to me.
9:14 There was a little city, and few men within it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it.
9:15 Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
9:16 Then I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
9:17 The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the cry of him who rules among fools.
9:18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war; but one sinner destroys much good.