1 Who is like the wise man? Who knows the meaning of a thing? A man's wisdom brightens his face and changes its hardness.
2 I say, obey the king's command, because of the oath of God.
3 Do not hurry to leave his presence; do not persist in an evil cause, for he will do whatever he wishes.
4 For the king's word is supreme, and who can say to him, "What are you doing?"
5 One who obeys the command will come to no harm, and a wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.
6 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, for man's misery weighs heavily on him.
7 For he does not know what is to come; who can tell him how it will happen?
8 No man has authority over the wind to restrain the wind, and no one has authority over the day of his death; there is no release in wartime, and wickedness will not save those who practice it.
9 All this I saw as I gave my heart to every work done under the sun, while one man lords it over another to his hurt.
10 Then I saw the wicked buried; they used to go in and out of the holy place, and they were forgotten in the city where they had acted so. This too is vanity.
11 Because the sentence on an evil deed is not carried out speedily, the hearts of the sons of men are fully set on doing evil.
12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and lives a long time, yet I know that it will go well with those who fear God, who stand in awe before him.
13 But it will not go well with the wicked, and he will not lengthen his days like a shadow, because he does not stand in awe before God.
14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth: there are righteous men who receive what the deeds of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked men who receive what the deeds of the righteous deserve. I said that this too is vanity.
15 So I commended joy, for man has nothing better under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad, and this will go with him in his labor through the days of life God gives him under the sun.
16 When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to observe the business that is done on earth, how one's eyes see no sleep by day or by night,
17 then I saw all the work of God, that no one can grasp the work that is done under the sun. However much a man labors to search it out, he will not grasp it; and even if a wise man claims to know, he cannot grasp it.