Ecclesiastes 8

1Who knows the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, And a man shameless in face will be hated.

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2Keep the king's commandment and spare no effort for the sake of your oath to God.

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3You will go out from his presence, but do not stand with an evil thing, for the king will do whatever he pleases.

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4Insofar as a king has authority, he speaks, And who will say to him, 'Why will you do this?'

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5He who keeps his commandment will not know an evil thing, And a wise man's heart knows the time of judgment.

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6For to every matter there is a time and a judgment, Because the knowledge of a man lies heavily upon him.

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7For there is no one who knows what is going to be; For who will tell him how it shall be?

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8No one has the authority over his spirit to withhold his spirit, And no one has authority in the day of his death.

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9There is no discharge in that war, And ungodliness will not save those given to it. I saw all this and gave my heart to every work done under the sun wherein one man has authority over another man to injure him.

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10Then I saw the ungodly buried in their tombs and brought from their holy place and praised in the city for what they had done. But this also is vanity.

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11For no controversy comes quickly against those who do evil; therefore, the heart of the sons of men is fully determined within them to do evil.

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12Whoever sins does evil from that time on and for a long time afterwards; nevertheless, I know that it shall be well for those who fear God so long as they have fear before Him.

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13But it shall not be well with the ungodly man; he will not prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not have fear before God.

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14There is a vanity that is done on earth: there are the righteous as when the work of the ungodly overtakes them, and there are the ungodly as when the work of the righteous overtakes them. I said that this also is vanity.

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15So I praised merriment, because a man has nothing better to do under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will be present with him in his labor all the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

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16For this reason I committed my heart to know wisdom and to see the distractions done on earth; nevertheless, he receives no sleep, day or night.

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17Then I saw all the works of God, that a man cannot discover how He does His work under the sun. No matter how much a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it out. And no matter how much a wise man may speak of knowing it, he will not be able to find it out.

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