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1Who is like a wise man?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
⚓A man’s wisdom makes his face shine,
And ⚓the sternness of his face is changed.
Obey Authorities for God’s Sake
2I say, “Keep the king’s commandment ⚓for the sake of your oath to God.
3⚓Do not be hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand for an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him.”
4Where the word of a king is, there is power;
And ⚓who may say to him, “What are you doing?”
5He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful;
And a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment,
6Because ⚓for every matter there is a time and judgment,
Though the misery of man increases greatly.
7⚓For he does not know what will happen;
So who can tell him when it will occur?
8⚓No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit,
And no one has power in the day of death.
There is⚓no release from that war,
And wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it.
9All this I have seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun: There is a time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt.
Death Comes to All
10Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness, and they were ⚓forgotten in the city where they had so done. This also is vanity.
11⚓Because the 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.
12⚓Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that ⚓it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him.
13But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
14There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just 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⚓So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.
16When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night,
17then I saw all the work of God, that ⚓a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it.