1 Who [is] as the wise [man]? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his faceThat is, gets him favour and prosperity.to shine, andWhile before he was proud and arrogant, he will become humble and meek.the boldness of his face shall be changed.
2 I [counsel thee] to keep the king'sThat is, that you obey the king and keep the oath that you have made for the same cause.commandment, and [that] in regard of the oath of God.
3 Do not withdraw from yourself lightly from the obedience of your prince.Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatever pleaseth him.
4 Where the word of ye King is, there is power, and who shall say vnto him, What doest thou?
5 He who keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth bothThat is, when time is to obey, and how far he should obey.time and judgment.
6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore theMan by himself is miserable, and therefore should do nothing to increase the same, but to work all things by wisdom and counsel.misery of man [is] great upon him.
7 For he knoweth not that which shalbe: for who can tell him when it shalbe?
8 [There is] no man that hath powerMan has no power to save his own life and therefore must not rashly cast himself into danger.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.
9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun: [there is] a time in which one man ruleth over another to his ownAs comes often to tyrants and wicked rulers.hurt.
10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come andThat is, others as wicked as they.gone from theThey who feared God and worshipped him as he had appointed.place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this [is] also vanity.
11 Because sentence against an evil work is notWhere justice is delayed, there sin reigns.executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
12 Though a sinner doe euill an hundreth times, and God prolongeth his dayes, yet I knowe that it shalbe well with them that feare the Lord, and doe reuerence before him.
13 But it shall not be well to the wicked, neither shall he prolong his dayes: he shall be like a shadowe, because he feareth not before God.
14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there are just [men], to whom it happeneth according to theWho are punished as though they were wicked, as in (Ecc_7:17)work of the wicked; again, there are wicked [men], to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also [is] vanity.
15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than{{See Ecc_3:22}}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.
16 When I applied mine heart to knowe wisedome, and to behold the busines that is done on earth, that neither day nor night the eyes of man take sleepe,
17 Then I behelde the whole worke of God, that man cannot finde out ye worke that is wrought vnder the sunne: for the which man laboureth to seeke it, and cannot finde it: yea, and though the wise man thinke to knowe it, he cannot finde it.
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