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Ecclesiastes 8
New Century Version
Ecclesiastes 8
New Century Version
Obey the King
8 No one is like the wise person
who can understand what things mean.
Wisdom brings happiness;
it makes sad faces happy.
2 Obey the king’s command, because you made a promise to God. 3 Don’t be too quick to leave the king. Don’t support something that is wrong, because the king does whatever he pleases. 4 What the king says is law; no one tells him what to do.
5 Whoever obeys the king’s command will be safe.
A wise person does the right thing at the right time.
6 There is a right time and a right way for everything,
yet people often have many troubles.
7 They do not know what the future holds,
and no one can tell them what will happen.
8 No one can control the wind
or stop his own death.
No soldier is released in times of war,
and evil does not set free those who do evil.
Justice, Rewards, and Punishment
9 I saw all of this as I considered all that is done here on earth. Sometimes people harm those they control. 10 I saw the funerals of evil people who used to go in and out of the holy place. They were honored in the same towns where they had done evil. This is useless, too.
11 When evil people are not punished right away, it makes others want to do evil, too. 12 Though a sinner might do a hundred evil things and might live a long time, I know it will be better for those who honor God. 13 I also know it will not go well for evil people, because they do not honor God. Like a shadow, they will not last. 14 Sometimes something useless happens on earth. Bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people. I say that this is also useless. 15 So I decided it was more important to enjoy life. The best that people can do here on earth is to eat, drink, and enjoy life, because these joys will help them do the hard work God gives them here on earth.
We Cannot Understand All God Does
16 I tried to understand all that happens on earth. I saw how busy people are, working day and night and hardly ever sleeping. 17 I also saw all that God has done. Nobody can understand what God does here on earth. No matter how hard people try to understand it, they cannot. Even if wise people say they understand, they cannot; no one can really understand it.
Ecclesiastes 8
New International Version
Ecclesiastes 8
New International Version
8 Who 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
2 Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God. 3 Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence.(A) Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. 4 Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, “What are you doing?(B)”
5 Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm,
and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.
6 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter,(C)
though a person may be weighed down by misery.
7 Since no one knows the future,
who can tell someone else what is to come?
8 As no one has power over the wind to contain it,
so[a] 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 practice it.
9 All 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 own[b] hurt. 10 Then too, I saw the wicked buried(D)—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise[c] in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.
11 When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong. 12 Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better(E) with those who fear God,(F) who are reverent before him.(G) 13 Yet because the wicked do not fear God,(H) it will not go well with them, and their days(I) will not lengthen like a shadow.
14 There 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.(J) This too, I say, is meaningless.(K) 15 So I commend the enjoyment of life(L), because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink(M) and be glad.(N) Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.
16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom(O) and to observe the labor that is done on earth(P)—people getting no sleep day or night— 17 then I saw all that God has done.(Q) 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.(R)
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 8:8 Or over the human spirit to retain it, / and so
- Ecclesiastes 8:9 Or to their
- Ecclesiastes 8:10 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint (Aquila); most Hebrew manuscripts and are forgotten
New Century Version (NCV) 
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.