Who [is] as the wise man?{HR}And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing?{HR}A man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine,{HR}And the hardness of his face is changed.
[I counsel thee], Keep the king’s command,{HR}And [that] in regard of the oath of God.
Be not hasty to go out of his presence;{HR}Persist not in an evil thing:{HR}For he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him,
Because the king’s word hath power;{HR}And who may say unto him, What dost thou?
Whoso keepeth the commandment shall know no evil thing;{HR}And a wise man’s heart discerneth time and judgment:
For to every purpose there is a time and judgment;{HR}Because the misery of man is great upon him:
For he knoweth not that which shall be;{HR}For who can tell him how it shall be?
There is no man that hath power over the day of death;{HR}And there is no discharge in that war:{HR}Neither shall wickedness deliver him that is given to it.
All this have I seen,{HR}And applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun:{HR}There is a time wherein one man hath power over another to his hurt.
And withal I saw the wicked buried,{HR}And they came to the grave;{HR}And they that had done right went away from the holy place,{HR}And were forgotten in the city:{HR}This also is vanity.
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily,{HR}Therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and prolong his days,{HR}Yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God,
Because they fear before him:{HR}But it shall not be well with the wicked,{HR}Neither shall he prolong his [days],{HR}Which are as a shadow,{HR}Because he feareth not before God.
There is a vanity which is done upon the earth;{HR}That there are righteous [men],{HR}Unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked;{HR}Again, there are wicked men,{HR}To whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous.{HR}I said that this also is vanity.
Then I commended mirth,{HR}Because a man hath no better thing under the sun,{HR}Than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry:{HR}For that shall abide with him in his labour the days of his life{HR}Which God hath given him under the sun.
When I applied mine heart to know wisdom,{HR}And to see the business that is done upon the earth:{HR}(For also [there is that] neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)
Then I beheld all the work of God,{HR}That man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun:{HR}Because however much a man labour to seek out,{HR}Yet he shall not find;{HR}Yea moreover, though a wise man think to know,{HR}Yet shall he not be able to find.