1Who is like a wise person?
Who knows how to explain things?
A person’s wisdom makes their face bright.
It softens the look on their face.
Obey the King
2I’m telling you to obey the king’s command. You promised to serve him. You made a promise to God. 3Don’t be in a hurry to quit your job in the palace. Don’t stand up for something the king doesn’t like. He’ll do anything he wants to. 4The king has the final word. So who can ask him, “What are you doing?”
5No one who obeys his command will be harmed.
Those who are wise will know the proper time and way to approach him.
6There’s a proper time and way for people to do everything.
That’s true even though a person might be suffering greatly.
7No one knows what lies ahead.
So who can tell someone else what’s going to happen?
8No one can stop the wind from blowing.
And no one has the power to decide when they will die.
No one is let out of the army in times of war.
And evil won’t let go of those who practice it.
9I understood all these things. I used my mind to study everything that’s done on earth. A man sometimes makes life hard for others. But he ends up hurting himself. 10I also saw sinful people being buried. They used to come and go from the place of worship. And others praised them in the city where they worshiped. That doesn’t have any meaning either.
11Sometimes the sentence for a crime isn’t carried out quickly. So people make plans to commit even more crimes. 12An evil person may be guilty of a hundred crimes. Yet they may still live a long time. But I know that things will go better with those who have great respect for God. 13Sinful people don’t respect God. So things won’t go well with them. Like a shadow, they won’t be around very long.
14Here’s something else on this earth that doesn’t have any meaning. Sometimes godly people get what sinful people should receive. And sinful people get what godly people should receive. Here’s what I’m telling you. That doesn’t have any meaning either. 15So I advise everyone to enjoy life. A person on this earth can’t do anything better than eat and drink and be glad. Then they will enjoy their work. They’ll be happy all the days of the life God has given them on earth.
16I used my mind to understand what it really means to be wise. I wanted to observe the hard work people do on earth. They don’t close their eyes and go to sleep day or night. 17I saw everything God has done. No one can understand what happens on earth. People might try very hard to figure it out. But they still can’t discover what it all means. Wise people might claim they know. But they can’t really understand it either.
1Who is like the wise?
Who knows the explanation of things?
A person’s wisdom brightens their face
and changes its hard appearance.
Obey the king
2Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God. 3Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. 4Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
5Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm,
and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.
6For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter,
though a person may be weighed down by misery.
7Since no-one knows the future,
who can tell someone else what is to come?
8As no-one has power over the wind to contain it,
so8:8 Or over the human spirit to retain it, / and so no-one has power over the time of their death.
As no-one is discharged in time of war,
so wickedness will not release those who practise it.
9All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own8:9 Or to their hurt. 10Then too, I saw the wicked buried – those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise8:10 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint (Aquila); most Hebrew manuscripts and are forgotten in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.
11When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong. 12Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him. 13Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.
14There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. 15So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.
16When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labour that is done on earth – people getting no sleep day or night – 17then I saw all that God has done. No-one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no-one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.
