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Ecclesiastes 8
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| 8:1
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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| 8:2
I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the
oath of God. |
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| 8:3
Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he
doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. |
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| 8:4
Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him,
What doest thou? |
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| 8:5
Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's
heart discerneth both time and judgment. |
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| 8:6
Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery
of man is great upon him. |
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| 8:7
For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall
be? |
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| 8:8
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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| 8:9
All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done
under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his
own hurt. |
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| 8:10
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
is also vanity. |
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| 8:11
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. |
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| 8:12
Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet
surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear
before him: |
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| 8:13
But it shall not be
well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a
shadow; because he feareth not before God. |
(8:13) "It shall not be
well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days."
Do
wicked people grow old and prosper?
(8:14) "There be just men."
Has the ever been a just person?
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| 8:14
There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men,
unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be
wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I
said that this also is vanity.
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| 8:15
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. |
(8:15) "A man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink,
and to be merry."
Is it good to be happy?
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| 8:16
When I applied mine 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:) |
(8:17) "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 it out, yet
he shall not find it; yea farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet
shall he not be able to find it."
Oh, I think science has done a pretty good job of finding things out over the last four centuries or so.
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| 8:17
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 it out, yet
he shall not find it; yea farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet
shall he not be able to find it.
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