|
[1]Who is as the wise man? And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? The wisdom of a man doth make his face to shine: and the strength of his face shall be changed.
[2]I advertise thee to take heed to the mouth of the king, and to the word of the oath of God.
[3]Haste not to go forth of his sight: stand not in an evil thing: for he will do whatsoever pleaseth him.
[4]Where the word of the king is, there is power, and who shall say unto him, What doest thou?
[5]He that keepeth the commandment, shall know none evil thing, and the heart of the wise shall know the time and judgment.
[6]For to every purpose there is a time and judgment, because the misery of man is great upon him.
[7]For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
[8]Man is not lord over the spirit to retain the spirit: neither hath he power in the day of death, nor deliverance in the battle, neither shall wickedness deliver the possessors thereof.
[9]All this have I seen, and have given mine heart to every work, which is wrought under the sun, and I saw a time that man ruleth over man to his own hurt.
[10]And likewise I saw the wicked buried, and they returned, and they that came from the holy place, were yet forgotten in the city where they had done right: this also is vanity.
[11]Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil.
[12]Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and God prolongeth his days, yet I know that it shall be well with them that fear the Lord, and do reverence before him.
[13]But it shall not be well to the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days: h e shall be like a shadow, because he feareth not before God.
[14]There is a vanity, which is done upon the earth, that there be righteous men to whom it cometh according to the work of the wicked: and there be wicked men to whom it cometh according to the work of the just: I thought also that this is vanity.
[15]And I praised joy: for there is no goodness to man under the sun, save to eat and to drink and to rejoice: for this is adjoined to his labor, the days of his life that God hath given him under the sun.
[16]When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to behold the business that is done on earth, that neither day nor night the eyes of man take sleep,
[17]Then I beheld the whole work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is wrought under the sun: for the which man laboreth to seek it, and cannot find it: yea, and though the wise man think to know it, he cannot find it.
|