Ecclesiastes 8

No One Has Power Over the Day of Death

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Guard the King’s Mouth

8:1Who knows wise people, and who knows the solution of a saying? A person’s wisdom will light up his face, but one shameless in his face will be hated.

8:2Guard the king’s mouth; and concerning the word of an oath of God, do not hurry.

8:3You will go from his presence. Do not stand in an evil matter, for he will do whatever he pleases,

8:4just as a king with authority speaks; and who will say to him, What will you do?

8:5Whoever keeps a command will know no evil word, and a wise heart knows a time of judgment.

8:6For every matter has a time and judgment, because a person’s knowledge is great upon him.

8:7For he does not know what will be; who will tell him how it will be?

8:8No human being has authority over the spirit to restrain the spirit, and there is no authority over the day of death. There is no discharge in war, and ungodliness will not rescue the one who possesses it.

All This I Saw Under the Sun

8:9All this I saw, and I set my heart upon every deed done under the sun, all the things in which one person has authority over another to his harm.

8:10Then I saw ungodly people brought into tombs; they went from the holy place and were praised in the city because they had acted so. This too is futility.

8:11Because no prompt contradiction comes from those who do evil, the heart of human beings is therefore fully assured in them to do evil.

8:12The sinner has done evil from then, and there is length for him; for I know that it will be good for those who fear God, so that they may fear before Him.

8:13But it will not be good for the ungodly, and he will not prolong his days in a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

The Futility That Occurs on Earth

8:14There is a futility that occurs on earth: there are righteous people to whom things happen as the deeds of the ungodly deserve, and ungodly people to whom things happen as the deeds of the righteous deserve. I said that this too is futility.

8:15So I praised gladness, because a person has no good under the sun except to eat, drink and rejoice; this will accompany him in his toil through the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

8:16When I set my heart to know wisdom and to see the distraction carried on upon the earth, because neither by day nor by night does one see sleep with one’s eyes,

8:17then I saw all God’s works: a person cannot find the work done under the sun. However much a person toils to seek it, he will not find it; even if the wise person says he knows, he will not be able to find it.

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.