1Who is as the wise? And who knows the explanation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the strength of his face is changed. 2I say, Keep the king’s edict, because of the oath of God. 3Do not be hasty to leave his presence. Do not take a stand in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him; 4because in the word of a king is power; and who may say to him, What are you doing? 5Whoever keeps the command shall experience no evil decree; and a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment. 6Because for every desire there is a time and judgment, for the evil of man increases greatly. 7For he does not know what shall be; so who can tell him when it shall be? 8No one has power over the spirit to restrain the spirit; nor power in the day of death; and there is no discharge from that war; nor shall wickedness deliver its owners. 9All this I have seen, and I gave my heart to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt. 10And so I saw the wicked buried, they who had come and gone from the consecrated place. And they were forgotten in the city where they had done so. This also is 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 does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. 13But it shall not be well with the wicked, nor shall he prolong his days, which are like a shadow; because he does not fear before God. 14There is a vanity which is done on the earth: There are just ones to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked ones to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15Then I praised gladness, because a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat and to drink and to be glad; for that shall remain with him of his labor for the days of his life which God gives him under the sun. 16When I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth, not seeing sleep with the eyes, day or night; 17then I looked at all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun; because though a man labors to seek it out, yet he shall not find it. Moreover, though a wise one speaks of knowing, yet he shall not be able to find it.