Chapter 8

  Who is as the wise 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.  

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  I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.  

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

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  Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say to him, what doest thou?  

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  He who keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.  

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  Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.  

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  For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?  

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  There is no man that hath power 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.  

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  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 hurt.  

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  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 is also vanity.  

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  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.  

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  Though a sinner doeth evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet surely I know that it will be well with them that fear God, who fear before him:  

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  But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.  

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  There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there are just men, to whom it happeneth according to the 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.  

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  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 labor the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.  

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  When 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 seeth sleep with his eyes:)  

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  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 may labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yes further; though a wise man thinketh to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.  

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