8 1 Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A person's wisdom brightens their face, and the hardness of their face is changed.
2 Keep the king's command, I say, because of your oath before God.
Navigating the King's Power
3 Do not be hasty to leave his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for the king does whatever he pleases. 4 For the king's word holds supreme authority, and who can say to him, "What are you doing?" 5 Whoever keeps a command will know no harm, and the wise heart discerns the proper time and way. 6 For there is a proper time and way for every matter, though a person's trouble lies heavy upon them. 7 For no one knows what is to come, and who can tell them how it will be? 8 No one has power over the wind to restrain it, and no one has power over the day of death. There is no discharge from that battle, and wickedness will not deliver those who practice it. 9 All this I saw as I applied my heart to every deed done under the sun, a time when one person held power over another to their harm.
When Justice Seems Delayed
10 And then I saw the wicked buried and laid to rest, while those who had done right had to leave the holy place and were forgotten in the city. This too is fleeting. a a v10 The holy place refers to the Jerusalem temple. 11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not carried out quickly, the hearts of people are filled with schemes to do wrong. 12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I know that it will go well with those who fear God, who stand in reverence before him. 13 But it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not prolong their days, which are like a shadow, because they have no reverence before God.
14 There is a fleeting thing that happens on the earth: righteous people who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked people who get what the righteous deserve. I said that this too is fleeting. 15 So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. This will stay with them in their labor through the days of life that God has given them under the sun.
16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to observe the labor done on the earth — though one's eyes never close day or night 17 —then I saw all that God has done: no one can grasp the work that is done under the sun. However hard a person searches, they will not find it out; even if the wise claim to know, they cannot grasp it.