Kohelet - Chapter 8

1. Who is like the wise man, and who knows the meaning of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the boldness of his face is changed.

2. I [am prepared to] observe the commandment of the King, and concerning the oath of God.

3. Hasten not to go away from before Him; stay not in an evil thing; for all that He wishes, He will do.

4. Inasmuch as the King's word is the rule, and who will say to Him, "What are You doing?"

5. Whoever keeps the commandment shall know no evil thing, and the heart of a wise man knows time and justice.

6. For every desire has a time and judgment, when the evil of man is great upon him.

7. For he knows not what will be, for how it will be, who will tell him?

8. No man controls the will [of God's messenger] to retain the spirit, and there is no ruling on the day of death; neither is there discharge in war, nor will wickedness save the one who practices it.

9. I saw all this, and I applied my heart to all the work that is done under the sun, a time that a man ruled over [another] man for his [own] harm.

10. And so I saw the wicked buried, and they came, and from the place of the Holy One they go away, and they will be forgotten in the city that they did so; this too is vanity.

11. Because the sentence of the deed of evil is not executed swiftly; therefore, the heart of the children of men is encouraged to do evil.

12. For a sinner does evil a hundred [years], and He grants him an extension; but I know too that it will be good for those who fear God because they fear Him.

13. But it will not be well with the wicked, and he will not prolong [his] days, like a shadow, because he does not fear God.

14. There is vanity that is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deed of the wicked, and there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the deed of the righteous; I said that this too is vanity.

15. And I praised joy, for there is nothing better for man under the sun than to eat and to drink and to be merry, and that will accompany him in his toil the days of his life that God gave him under the sun.

16. When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the conduct that is done upon the earth, for neither by day nor by night does he see sleep with his eyes.

17. And I saw all the deed of God, for a person will not be able to fathom the deed that is done under the sun, because though a man toils to seek, he will not fathom [it], and even if the wise man claims to know [it], he will be unable to fathom [it].