81Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.+2I [counsel thee], Keep the king’s command, and that in regard of the oath of God.+3Be not hasty to go out of his presence; persist not in an evil thing: for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.+4For the king’s word [hath] power; and who may say unto him, What doest thou?+5Whoso keepeth the commandment shall know no evil thing; and a wise man’s heart discerneth time and judgment:+6for to every purpose there is a time and judgment; because the misery of man is great upon him:+7for he knoweth not that which shall be; for who can tell him how it shall be?+8There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power over the day of death; and there is no discharge in war: neither shall wickedness deliver him that is given to it.+9All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: [there is] a time wherein one man hath power over another to his hurt.+
10So I saw the wicked buried, and they came [to the grave]; and they that had done right went away from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city: this also is vanity.+11Because 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.+12Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and prolong his [days], yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, that fear before him:+13but 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.+
God’s Ways Are Mysterious
14There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that there are righteous men unto 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.+15Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: for that shall abide with him in his labor [all] the days of his life which God hath given him under the sun.+16When 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),+17then I beheld all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because however much a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea moreover, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.+
This is an AI study aid, not our church speaking. It summarises how
different Christian teachers have read a passage. It doesn't tell you what
Clearspring believes. Please check anything important with a pastor.