Ecclesiastes 8
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1 |
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.
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2 |
I counsel thee to keep the
king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of
God.
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3 |
Be not hasty to go out of his sight:
stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth
him.
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4 |
Where the word of a king is, there
is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
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5 |
Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel
no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and
judgment.
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6 |
Because to every purpose there is time
and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon
him.
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7 |
For he knoweth not that which shall be:
for who can tell him when it shall be?
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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.
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9 |
All 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.
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The Inequalities of
Life |
10 |
And 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.
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11 |
Because 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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12 |
Though a sinner do evil a 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:
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13 |
but 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.
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14 |
There 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.
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15 |
Then 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 labor the days of
his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
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16 |
When 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:)
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17 |
then 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 labor 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.
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