1 Who is like a wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? Prov. 4:8, 9; Acts 6:15 A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, And Deut. 28:50 the sternness of his face is changed.
2 Obey Authorities for God’s Sake I say, “Keep the king’s commandment Ex. 22:11;2 Sam. 21:7;1 Chr. 29:24; Ezek. 17:18; (Rom. 13:5) for the sake of your oath to God.
3 Eccl. 10:4 Do not be hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand for an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him.”
4 Where the word of a king is, there is power; And 1 Sam. 13:11, 13; Job 34:18 who may say to him, “What are you doing?”
5 He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful; And a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment,
6 Because Eccl. 3:1, 17 for every matter there is a time and judgment, Though the misery of man increases greatly.
7 Prov. 24:22; Eccl. 6:12 For he does not know what will happen; So who can tell him when it will occur?
8 Ps. 49:6, 7; Job 14:5 No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, And no one has power in the day of death. There is Deut. 20:5–8 no release from that war, And wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it.
9 All 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.
10 Death Comes to All Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness, and they were Eccl. 2:16; 9:5 forgotten in the city where they had so done. This also is vanity.
11 Ps. 10:6; 50:21; Is. 26:10 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 Is. 65:20; (Rom. 2:5–7) Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that (Deut. 4:40; Ps. 37:11, 18, 19; Prov. 1:32, 33; Is. 3:10; Matt. 25:34, 41) it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him.
13 But 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.
14 There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it Ps. 73:14 happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the Eccl. 2:14; 7:15; 9:1–3 righteous. I said that this also is vanity.
15 Eccl. 2:24 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.
16 When 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,
17 then I saw all the work of God, that Job 5:9; Ps. 73:16; Eccl. 3:11; Rom. 11:33 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.