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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.¹¹ 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.¹² Though a sinner doeth evil a hundred times, and his [days] are prolonged, yet surely I know that it will be well with them that fear God, who fear before him:¹³ But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong [his] days, [which are] as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

¹⁴ There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there are just [men], to whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked [men], to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also [is] vanity.¹⁵ Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labor the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.¹⁶ When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also [there is that] neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)¹⁷ Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man may labor to seek [it] out, yet he shall not find [it]; yes further; though a wise [man] thinketh to know [it], yet shall he not be able to find [it].