1Who [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. 2I [counsel thee] to keep the king's commandment, and [that] in regard of the oath of God. 3Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatever pleaseth him. 4Where the word of ye King is, there is power, and who shall say vnto him, What doest thou? 5He who keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. 6Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man [is] great upon him. 7For he knoweth not that which shalbe: for who can tell him when it shalbe? 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. 9All 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. 10And 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. 11Because 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. 12Though a sinner doe euill an hundreth times, and God prolongeth his dayes, yet I knowe that it shalbe well with them that feare the Lord, and doe reuerence before him. 13But it shall not be well to the wicked, neither shall he prolong his dayes: he shall be like a shadowe, because he feareth not before God. 14There 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. 15Then 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. 16When I applied mine heart to knowe wisedome, and to behold the busines that is done on earth, that neither day nor night the eyes of man take sleepe, 17Then I behelde the whole worke of God, that man cannot finde out ye worke that is wrought vnder the sunne: for the which man laboureth to seeke it, and cannot finde it: yea, and though the wise man thinke to knowe it, he cannot finde it.