O2 T n 1-. Wisdom. Happiness of it.
o -1. Reason.
U 2,3. King's commandment.
U 4. King's word.
T n 5. Wisdom. Strength of it.
o 6-8. Reason.
Ecclesiastes 8)
1 Who [is like him that] knows the understanding of a thing?
a man's true wisdom makes his face to shine, and the sternness of his face shall be changed.
2 I counsel you (or, I say then) to keep the king's commandment, and that on account of the oath of God.
3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: do not take your stand in an evil thing; for he does whatsoever pleases him.
4 Where the word of a king is, there is might (or control): and who may say to him, "What do you?"
5 Whoso keeps the commandment shall know no calamity: and a wise man's heart discerns both a time, yes, a judgment time.
6 Because to every purpose there exists time and judgment, when the evil of man is heavy upon him.
7 For he knows not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
8 There is no man that has power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither has he power in the day of death: and there is no furlough in the battle [of life]; neither shall cunning deliver its possessors. (No cunning will save the wicked.)
P2 V 9-. Observation.
W -9. Result.
V 10-. Observation.
W -10. Result.
9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun:
sometimes one man rules over another to his own hurt.
10 And so I have seen lawless men come [to the grave; and righteous men] depart [in death (Gen. 15:2)] from the place of the holy,
and be forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.
O3 X 11. Consequence of God's suspended judgment.
Y 12-. Evil-doing prolonged.
Z -12. Evil-doers. Well with them.
Z 13-. Evil-doers. Evil with them.
Y -13-. Evil-doers' days not prolonged.
X -13. Cause. No fear of God.
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.
12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days [of evil-doing] be prolonged,
yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that revere the true God, which revere before Him:
13 But it shall not be well with a lawless one,
neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow;
because he fears not before God.
P3 A 8:14. Contrariety. Man's happenings.
B1 p1 8:15-. Mirth commended.
q1 8:-15. Reason.
B2 p2 8:16-. Wisdom. Man work on earth.
q2 8:-16. Reason.
B3 p3 8:17-. Wisdom. God's work on earth.
q3 8:-17. Reason.
A 9:1 Contrariety. God's dealings
14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be righteous men, to whom it happens according to the work of the lawless; again, there be lawless men, to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.
15 Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry:
for that shall abide with him of his toil the days of his life, which God gives him under the sun.
16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the travail that is done upon the earth:
(how that one that does not see sleep in his eyes by day or by night:)
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; yes farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.