Ecclesiastes 8

Chapter 8

8:1 Who [is] as the wise [man]? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a mans wisdom maketh his face ^a to shine, and ^b the boldness of his face shall be changed.

(a) That is, gets him favour and prosperity.
(b) While before he was proud and arrogant, he will become humble and meek.

8:2 I [counsel thee] to keep the kings ^c commandment, and [that] in regard of the oath of God.

(c) That is, that you obey the king and keep the oath that you have made for the same cause.

8:3 ^d Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatever pleaseth him.

(d) Do not withdraw from yourself lightly from the obedience of your prince.

8:5 He who keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise mans heart discerneth both ^e time and judgment.

(e) That is, when time is to obey, and how far he should obey.

8:6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the ^f misery of man [is] great upon him.

(f) Man by himself is miserable, and therefore should do nothing to increase the same, but to work all things by wisdom and counsel.

8:8 [There is] no man that hath power ^g 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.

(g) Man has no power to save his own life and therefore must not rashly cast himself into danger.

8:9 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 own ^h hurt.

(h) As comes often to tyrants and wicked rulers.

8:10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and ⁱ gone from the ^k place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this [is] also vanity.

(i) That is, others as wicked as they.
(k) They who feared God and worshipped him as he had appointed.

8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not ^l executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

(l) Where justice is delayed, there sin reigns.

8:14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there are just [men], to whom it happeneth according to the ^m 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.

(m) Who are punished as though they were wicked, as in ( Ecclesiastes 7:17 )

8:15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than ⁿ 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.

(n) See