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¹ Who is wise? who hath knowledge to make an aunswere? A mans wysdome maketh his face to shine: but vnshamefastnes putteth it out of fauour.² Kepe the kynges commaundement, namely for the oth that thou hast made vnto God for the same.³ Be not hastie to go out of his sight, and see thou continue in no euyll thing: for whatsoeuer it pleaseth hym, that doth he.⁴ Like as when a king geueth a charge, his commaundement is mightie: Euen so, who may say vnto him, what doest thou?⁵ Who so kepeth the commaundement, shall feele no harme: but a wyse mans heart discerneth the tyme and iudgement.

⁶ For euery thing wyll haue oportunitie and iudgement: and this is the thing that maketh men full of carefulnesse and sorowe.⁷ And why? a man knoweth not what is for to come: for who can tell hym when it shalbe?⁸ Neither is there any man that hath power ouer the spirite to kepe styll the spirite, nor to haue any power in the tyme of death, nor that can make an ende of the battayle, neither may vngodlynesse deliuer them that meddle withall.

⁹ All these thinges haue I considered, and applied my mynde vnto euery worke that is vnder the sunne, howe one man hath lordship vpon another to his owne harme.¹⁰ For I haue seene often the vngodly brought to their graues, and yet they haue returned into the citie agayne: and came from the place of holy men, whiche in the citie were growen out of memorie, as were those also that liued well: This is also a vayne thing.¹¹ Because nowe that euyll workes are not hastyly punished, the heart of man geueth hym selfe ouer vnto wickednesse.¹² Because an euyll person offendeth an hundred tymes, and God deferreth, geuing hym long life, therefore am I sure that it shall go well with them that feare God, whiche haue hym before their eyes.¹³ Againe, as for the vngodly it shall not be well with him, neither shall he prolong his dayes: but euen as a shadowe, so shall he be that feareth not God.

¹⁴ Yet is there a vanitie vpon earth: There be iust men vnto whom it happeneth as though they had the workes of the vngodly: Againe, there be vngodly, with whom it goeth as though they had the workes of the righteous: This haue I called also a vayne thing.¹⁵ Therfore I commende gladnesse, because a man hath no better thing vnder the sunne, then to eate and drinke, and to be merie: for that shall he haue of his labour, al the dayes of his life which God geueth hym vnder the sunne.¹⁶ And so I applied my minde to learne wysdome, and to knowe the trauayle that is in the worlde, and that of suche a fashion, that I suffred not mine eyes to sleepe neither day nor night.¹⁷ I vnderstoode of all the workes of God, but it is not possible for a man to attayne vnto the workes that are done vnder the sunne: and though he bestowe his labour to seeke them out, yet can he not reach vnto them: yea though a wyse man would vndertake to know them, yet shall he not finde them.