Wisdom Toward Authorities
Ecclesiastes 8Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A human’s wisdom makes their face shine, and its hardness is changed.
I say, “Keep the king’s command!” because of the oath to God. Don’t be hasty to go out of his presence. Don’t persist in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him, for the king’s word is supreme. Who can say to him, “What are you doing?” Whoever keeps the commandment will not come to harm, and a wise heart will know the time and procedure. For there is a time and procedure for every purpose, although the misery of a person is heavy on them. For he doesn’t know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be? No one has power over the wind to contain it, neither does anyone have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither will wickedness deliver those who practice it.
All this I have seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which a person has power over another to their own hurt. So I saw the wicked buried. Indeed they came also from holiness. They went and were forgotten in the city where they did this. This also is emptiness. Because 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. Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him. But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he lengthen days like a shadow, because he doesn’t fear God.
There is a emptiness which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is emptiness. Then I commended enjoyment, because there is no better thing under the sun than for a person to eat, drink, and be joyful: for that will accompany them in their labor all the days of their life which God has given under the sun.
When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (even though eyes see no sleep day or night), then I saw all the work of God, that person can’t find out the work that is done under the sun, because however much someone works to find it out, they will never find it. Yes even though the wise claim to comprehend it, they cannot find it.