Ecclesiastes or, the Preacher

 1 Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom maketh his face to ^ashine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.

 2 I counsel thee to keep the ^aking’s commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.

 3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.

 4 Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?

 5 Whoso keepeth the ^acommandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth both ^btime and judgment.

 6 ¶Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.

 7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

 8 There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of ^adeath: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness ^bdeliver those that are given to it.

 9 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 ruleth over another to his own hurt.

 10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.

 11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed ^aspeedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully ^bset in them to do evil.

 12 ¶Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be ^awell with them that ^bfear God, which 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 ^afeareth not before God.

 14 There is a ^avanity which is done upon the earth; that there be ^bjust men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be 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 merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.

 16 ¶When I applied mine heart to know ^awisdom, 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:)

 17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the ^awork that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a ^bwise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.