Ecclesiastes 8

All 17 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

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1. 1Who is like the wise person? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A person's wisdom makes their face shine, and the boldness of their face is changed.
2. 2I advise you to keep the king's command, and that in regard of the oath of God.
3. 3Do not be hasty to go out of his sight. Do not stand in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him.
4. 4Where the word of a king is, there is power, and who may say to him, 'What are you doing?'
5. 5Whoever keeps the commandment will experience no evil thing, and a wise person's heart discerns both time and judgment.
6. 6Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of a person is great upon them.
7. 7For he does not know what will be, for who can tell him when it will be?
8. 8No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, and no one has power over the day of death. There is no discharge in that war, and wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it.
9. 9All this I have seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time when one person rules over another to their own hurt.
10. 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 also is vanity.
11. 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.
12. 12Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days are prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with those who fear God, who fear before him.
13. 13But it will not be well with the wicked, and he will not prolong his days, which are like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
14. 14There is a vanity which is done upon the earth: that there are just men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.
15. 15Then I commended mirth, because a person has no better thing under the sun than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry; for that will abide with them of their labor the days of their life, which God gives them under the sun.
16. 16When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth — for also there is that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes —
17. 17Then I observed all the work of God, that no one can discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though a person labors to seek it out, he will not find it. Yes, even further, though a wise person thinks he knows it, he will not be able to find it.