Ecclesiastes 81 Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the ▼ hardness of his face is changed. ▼
▼ 1) Heb strength2 I counsel thee , Keep the king’s command, and that in regard of the oath of God. 3 Be not hasty to go out of his presence; persist not in an evil thing: for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. 4 For the king’s word hath power; and who may say unto him, What doest thou? 5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall know no evil thing; and a wise man’s heart discerneth time and judgment: 6 for to every ▼ purpose there is a time and judgment; because the ▼ misery of man is great upon him: ▼
▼ 1) Or matter 2) Or evil7 for he knoweth not that which shall be; ▼ for who can tell him how it shall be? ▼
▼ 1) Or for even when it cometh to pass, who shall declare it unto him?8 There is no man that hath power over the ▼ spirit to retain the ▼ spirit; neither hath he power over the day of death; and there is no discharge ▼ in war: neither shall wickedness deliver him that is given to it. ▼
▼ 1) Or wind 2) Or in battle9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: ▼ there is a time wherein one man hath power over another ▼ to his hurt. ▼
▼ 1) Or what time one man had etc 2) Or to his own hurt10 So I saw the wicked buried, ▼ and they came to the grave ; and they that had done right went away from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city: this also is vanity. ▼
▼ 1) Or who had come and gone away from the holy place; and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done ; Or and men came and went etc11 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. ▼
▼ 1) Or emboldened12 Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and prolong his days , yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, that fear before him: 13 but it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God. 14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that there are righteous men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity. 15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: ▼ for that shall abide with him in his labor all the days of his life which God hath given him under the sun. ▼
▼ 1) Or and that this should accompany him16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the ▼ business that is done upon the earth ▼ (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes), ▼
▼ 1) Or travail 2) Or how that neither by day nor by night do men see sleep with their eyes17 then I beheld all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because however much a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea moreover, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.
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