Who {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. {the boldness: Heb. the strength}
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 whatsoever pleaseth him.
4Where the word of a king {is, there is} power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
5Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. {shall...: Heb. shall know}
6Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man {is} great upon him.
7For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be? {when...: or, how it shall be?}
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. {discharge: or, casting off weapons}
9All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: {there is} a time wherein 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 do evil an hundred times, and his {days} be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:
13But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong {his} days, {which are} as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
14There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just {men}, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be 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 know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also {there is that} neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)
17Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek {it} out, yet he shall not find {it}; yea further; though a wise {man} think to know {it}, yet shall he not be able to find {it}.