1 Who is as the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? The wisdom of man makes his face to shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.
2 I [counsel you], Keep the king's command, and that in regard of the oath of God.
3 Don't be in a hurry to go out of his presence; don't persist in an evil thing: for he does whatever pleases him.
4 For the king's word [has] power; and who may say to him, What are you doing?
5 Whoever keeps the commandment will know no evil thing; and a wise man's heart discerns time and judgment:
6 for to every purpose there is a time and judgment; because the misery of man is great on him:
7 for he doesn't know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?
8 Man does not have power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death; and there is no discharge in war: neither will wickedness deliver him who is given to it.
9 All this I have seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun: [there is] a time in which man has power over man to his hurt.
10 So I saw the wicked buried, and they came [to the grave]; and those who had done right went away from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city: this also is vanity.
11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of man is fully set in them to do evil.
12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and prolong his [days], yet surely I know that it will be well with those who fear God, that fear before him:
13 but it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong [his] days, [which are] as a shadow; because he does not fear before God.
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.
15 Then I commended mirth, because man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: for that will go with him in his labor [all] the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.
16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (for there is also one who neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes),
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 man labors to seek it out, yet he will not find it; yes moreover, though a wise man thinks to know it, yet he will not be able to find it.