1. Who {cf15I is} as the wise {cf15I 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.
2. I {cf15I counsel thee} to keep the king's commandment, and {cf15I that} in regard of the oath of God.
3. Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.
4. Where the word of a king {cf15I is, there is} power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
5. Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.
6. Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man {cf15I is} great upon him.
7. For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
8. {cf15I There is} no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither {cf15I hath he} power in the day of death: and {cf15I there is} no discharge in {cf15I that} war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
9. All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: {cf15I there is} a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
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 {cf15I is} also vanity.
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 {cf15I days} be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:
13. But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong {cf15I his} days, {cf15I which are} as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
14. There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just {cf15I men}, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked {cf15I men}, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also {cf15I is} vanity.
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 labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
16. When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also {cf15I there is that} neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)
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 labour to seek {cf15I it} out, yet he shall not find {cf15I it}; yea further; though a wise {cf15I man} think to know {cf15I it}, yet shall he not be able to find {cf15I it}.