Ecclesiastes 8
Reading Ecclesiastes chapter 8 in the Webster's Bible, public-domain text from 1833.
Verses 1–10
1 Who [is] as the wise [man]? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.
2 I [counsel thee] to keep the king'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 whatever pleaseth him.
4 Where the word of a king [is], [there is] power: and who may say to him, what doest thou?
5 He who keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time 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 death: and [there is] no discharge in [that] war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun: [there is] a time in which 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.
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