Ecclesiastes:8:2-17

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* I say , Keep the king 's word , even on the matter of the oath of God ; * do not be hasty to go from before him . Do not take a stand in an evil thing , for he does whatever he pleases . * Because the king 's word is that which has power ; who then will say to him , What are you doing ? * Whoever keeps the command shall know no evil thing . A wise man 's heart knows both time and judgment . * Because there is a time and judgment to every purpose , in this the evil of man is great upon him . * For he does not know what shall be . For who can tell him when it shall be ? * Man is not a ruler over the spirit , to restrain the spirit ; nor has he power in the day of death . And there is no discharge in that war , nor shall wickedness deliver its possessors . * All this I have seen . I gave my heart to every work that is done under the sun . There is a time in which a man rules over a man for his evil . * And so I saw the wicked buried ; and they came and went from the holy place , and were forgotten in the city , these things that they had done . This is also vanity . * Where sentence on an evil work is not executed speedily , on account of this the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil . * Though a sinner does evil a hundred times , and his days are prolonged to him , yet surely I know that it shall be well to those who fear God , who fear before Him . * But it shall not be well for the wicked ; and he shall not lengthen his days like a shadow ; because he does not fear before God . * There is a vanity which is done on the earth : There are just ones to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked ; and there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous . I said that this also is vanity . * Then I praised mirth , because nothing is good for man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be glad . For that shall go with him in his labor for the days of his life which God gives him under the sun . * When I gave my heart to know wisdom , and to see the business that is done on the earth ; for even by day and by night he does not see sleep in his eyes . * Then 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 . And even if the wise speaks of knowing , he shall not be able to find it .

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