Ecclesiastes, 8

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.

1. Who is like the wise man? Who else can solve a problem? A man's wisdom lights up his expression - his stern look is changed.

2. I [counsel thee] to keep the king's commandment, and [that] in regard of the oath of God.

2. Obey the command of the king because of the oath before God and

3. Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.

3. don't be eager to ignore it. Do not stubbornly support a bad cause, for he will do what he pleases.

4. Where the word of a king [is, there is] power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?

4. The king's word holds. Who will say to him, "What are you doing?"

5. Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.

5. Whoever obeys a royal precept avoids trouble. The wise man knows the time and the judgment -

6. Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man [is] great upon him.

6. the time to act and the value of everything. This misfortune weighs heavily on man:

7. For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

7. he has no knowledge of what will happen. Who can tell him what will happen?

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.

8. No man controls the wind or holds back the day of death. Struggle is useless and not even wickedness saves its author.

9. All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: [there is] a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.

9. I have observed this and set myself to consider everything that is done under the sun, when man is given the power of harming another.

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.

10. And so I have seen the wicked buried and people come from the holy place to honor them, forgetting how they acted. This, too, is futile.

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.

11. It is because sentence against wrongdoing is not passed at once that men turn to evil designs.

12. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his [days] be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:

12. The sinner may do wrong a hundred times and yet survive.

13. But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong [his] days, [which are] as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

13. but there will be no happiness for the wicked; and because he doesn't fear God, he will pass like a shadow and his days will not last.)

14. There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just [men], unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked [men], to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also [is] vanity.

14. Another kind of nonsense is found in what humans do on earth: the righteous are treated as the wicked deserve, and the wicked, as the righteous deserve. This, too, is meaningless.

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 labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.

15. So I praise joy, since for man there is no happiness under the sun other than eating, drinking and taking pleasure in his work throughout the life God gives him under the sun.

16. When I applied mine 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:)

16. When I set out to get wisdom and considered the human condition on earth, by day or by night when people sleep and are not conscious,

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 labour to seek [it] out, yet he shall not find [it]; yea further; though a wise [man] think to know [it], yet shall he not be able to find [it].

17. I saw that with regard to God's work, as a whole, no man is able to discover what the work is that goes on under the sun; though he tire himself searching, he will not find out. And if the wise man claims to know, he does not.