Bible Gateway passage: Ecclesiastes 8 - English Standard Version (2024)

Keep the King's Command

8Who is like the wise?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
^(A)A man's wisdom makes his face shine,
and ^(B)the hardness of his face is changed.

²I say:^[a] Keep the king's command, because of ^(C)God's oath to him.^{[b] 3}Be not hasty to ^(D)go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. ⁴For the word of the king is supreme, and ^(E)who may say to him, “What are you doing?” ⁵Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way.^{[c] 6}For there is a time and a way ^(F)for everything, although man's trouble^[d] lies heavy on him. ⁷For he ^(G)does not know what is to be, for ^(H)who can tell him how it will be? ⁸No man has power to ^(I)retain the spirit, ^(J)or power over the day of death. There is no ^(K)discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. ^9(L)All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.

Those Who Fear God Will Do Well

¹⁰Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of ^(M)the holy place and were ^(N)praised^[e] in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.^{[f] 11}Because ^(O)the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, ^(P)the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. ¹²Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and ^(Q)prolongs his life, yet I know that ^(R)it will be well with ^(S)those who fear God, because they fear before him. ¹³But it will ^(T)not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like ^(U)a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

Man Cannot Know God's Ways

¹⁴There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people ^(V)to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people ^(W)to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. ¹⁵And I commend joy, for man ^(X)has nothing better under the sun but to ^(Y)eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see ^(Z)the business that is done on earth, how neither ^(AA)day nor night do one's eyes see sleep, ¹⁷then I saw all the work of God, that ^(AB)man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, ^(AC)he cannot find it out.