Ecclesiastes 8

8Who is like the wise? Who knows the explanation of things? Wisdom brightens the face and changes its hard appearance.H2450H3045H6592H1697H120H2451H6440H215H5797H6440H81322Obey the king's command, I say, because you took an oath before God.H8104H4428H6310H1700H7621H4303Do not be in a hurry to leave the king's presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases.H926H3212H6440H5975H7451H1697H6213H26544Since a king's word is supreme, who can say to him, "What are you doing?"H1697H4428H7983H559H62135Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.H8104H4687H3045H7451H1697H2450H3820H3045H6256H49416For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery.H2656H3426H6256H4941H7451H120H72277Since no one knows the future, who can say what is to come?H3045H50468As no one has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the time of their death. As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.H120H7989H7307H3607H7307H7983H3117H4194H4917H4421H7562H4422H11679All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt.H7200H5414H3820H4639H6213H8121H6256H120H7980H745110Then too, I saw the wicked buried—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.H3651H7200H7563H6912H935H1980H4725H6918H7911H5892H6213H189211When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people's hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong.H6599H7451H4639H6213H4120H3820H1121H120H4390H6213H745112Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.H2398H6213H7451H3967H748H3045H2896H3373H430H3372H644013Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.H2896H7563H748H3117H6738H3373H6440H43014There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless.H3426H1892H6213H776H6662H5060H4639H7563H3426H7563H5060H4639H6662H559H1571H189215So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.H7623H8057H120H2896H8121H398H8354H8055H3867H5999H3117H2416H430H5414H812116When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night—H5414H3820H3045H2451H7200H6045H6213H776H3117H3915H7200H8142H586917then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. People toil to search it out, but no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.H7200H4639H430H120H3201H4672H4639H6213H8121H834H7945H120H5998H1245H4672H2450H559H3045H3201H4672