1Who is like the wise man? Who knows what a thing means? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.
2I advise you to keep the king's command, because of the oath you swore to God.
3Do not be quick to leave his presence. Do not stand up for an evil cause, for he does whatever pleases him.
4Where the word of a king is, there is power. Who can say to him, "What are you doing?"
5Whoever keeps the command will know no harm, and a wise man's heart knows both the time and the right way.
6For every purpose has its time and its right way. That is why a man's misery lies heavy on him.
7For he does not know what is going to happen. Who can tell him when it will be?
8No one has power over the spirit to hold the spirit back, and no one has power over the day of his death. There is no leave from that war, and wickedness will not save those who give themselves to it.
9All this I have seen. I set my heart on every work that is done under the sun. There is a time when one man rules over another to his own hurt.
10And so I saw the wicked buried, who used to come and go from the holy place. They were forgotten in the city where they had done such things. This also is empty.
11Because the sentence against an evil deed is not carried out quickly, the hearts of men are fully set in them to do evil.
12Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days are made long, yet I am sure of this: it will be well with those who fear God, who stand in fear before him.
13But it will not be well with the wicked man. He will not make his days long; they are like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
14There is something empty that is done on the earth: there are righteous men who get what the deeds of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked men who get what the deeds of the righteous deserve. I said that this also is empty.
15So I praised enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, and to drink, and to be glad. That will stay with him in his work through the days of his life, which God gives him under the sun.
16When I set my heart to know wisdom, and to see the work that is done on the earth (for there are people whose eyes see no sleep by day or by night),
17then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. Though a man works hard to search it out, he will not find it. More than that, though a wise man thinks he knows it, he will not be able to find it.