nkjv Ecclesiastes:8:2-17 SEEK
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I say , "
Keep the king '
s commandment for the sake of your oath to God .
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Do not be hasty to go from his presence .
Do not take your stand for an evil thing ,
for he does whatever pleases him ."
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Where the word of a king is ,
there is power ;
And who may say to him , "
What are you doing ?"
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He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful ;
And a wise man '
s heart discerns both time and judgment ,
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Because for every matter there is a time and judgment ,
Though the misery of man increases greatly .
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For he does not know what will happen ;
So who can tell him when it will occur ?
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No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit ,
And no one has power in the day of death .
There is no release from that war ,
And wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it .
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All this I have seen ,
and applied 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 .
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Then I saw the wicked buried ,
who had come and gone from the place of holiness ,
and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done .
This also is vanity .
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Because the 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 .
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Though a sinner does evil a hundred times ,
and his days are prolonged ,
yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God ,
who fear before Him .
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But it will not be well with the wicked ;
nor will he prolong his days ,
which are as a shadow ,
because he does not fear before God .
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There is a vanity which occurs on earth ,
that there are just men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked ;
again ,
there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous .
I said that this also is vanity .
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So I commended enjoyment ,
because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat ,
drink ,
and be merry ;
for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun .
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When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth ,
even though one sees no sleep day or night ,
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then I saw all the work of God ,
that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun .
For though a man labors to discover it ,
yet he will not find it ;
moreover ,
though a wise man attempts to know it ,
he will not be able to find it .