Ecclesiastes 8

¹⁵All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

⁵⁰a ruthless nation with no respect for the old and no pity for the young.

²⁰Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation.

⁵A wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge enhances his strength.

²⁴Wisdom is the focus of the discerning, but the eyes of a fool wander to the ends of the earth.

²⁹And now, Lord, consider their threats, and enable Your servants to speak Your word with complete boldness,

²¹My son, fear the Lord and the king, and do not associate with the rebellious.

¹Remind the believers to submit to rulers and authorities, to be obedient and ready for every good work,

¹³Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to the king as the supreme authority,

¹⁴or to governors as those sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right.

⁴³So why have you not kept your oath to the Lord and the command that I gave you?”

¹Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God.

²Consequently, whoever resists authority is opposing what God has set in place, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

¹¹an oath before the Lord shall be made between the parties to determine whether or not the man has taken his neighbor’s property. The owner must accept the oath and require no restitution.

⁴If the ruler’s temper flares against you, do not abandon your post, for calmness lays great offenses to rest.

³⁵All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

⁸“Tell me,” said Peter, “is this the price you and your husband got for the land?” “Yes,” she answered, “that is the price.”

⁹“How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?” Peter replied. “Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”

¹⁹Because of the greatness that He bestowed on him, the people of every nation and language trembled in fear before him. He killed whom he wished and kept alive whom he wished; he exalted whom he wished and humbled whom he wished.

²⁹A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man promotes folly.

⁴For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.

¹Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God.

²Consequently, whoever resists authority is opposing what God has set in place, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

¹²If He takes away, who can stop Him? Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’

²The terror of a king is like the roar of a lion; whoever provokes him forfeits his own life.

³⁵All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

²⁰But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”

¹²A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.

¹³Who can harm you if you are zealous for what is good?

¹⁴But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be shaken.”

⁹And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,

¹⁰so that you may be able to test and prove what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

¹⁹But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God.

²⁵So Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

⁵Therefore it is necessary to submit to authority, not only to avoid punishment, but also as a matter of conscience.

⁶This is also why you pay taxes. For the authorities are God’s servants, who devote themselves to their work.

¹To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:

¹⁷I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every deed.”

⁴²and said, “If only you had known on this day what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes.

⁴³For the days will come upon you when your enemies will barricade you and surround you and hem you in on every side.

¹¹He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end.

²⁶Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man:

²⁷People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

¹³Consider the work of God: Who can straighten what He has bent?

¹⁴In the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider this: God has made one of these along with the other, so that a man cannot discover anything that will come after him.

¹⁴Yet the fool multiplies words. No one knows what is coming, and who can tell him what will come after him?

¹²For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.

⁵⁰The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate.

¹²For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?

²²For they will bring sudden destruction. Who knows what ruin they can bring?

⁶At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

⁷Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.

⁴⁸What man can live and never see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah

⁵Since his days are determined and the number of his months is with You, and since You have set limits that he cannot exceed,

²⁷Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,

⁶They trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches.

⁷No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God.

²¹Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and the spirit of the animal descends into the earth?

³²The wicked man is thrown down by his own sin, but the righteous man has a refuge even in death.

⁸If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.

⁷Again, I saw futility under the sun.

⁸There is a man all alone, without even a son or brother. And though there is no end to his labor, his eyes are still not content with his wealth: “For whom do I toil and bereave my soul of enjoyment?” This too is futile—a miserable task.

¹³There is a grievous evil I have seen under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner,

¹⁰I have seen the burden that God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them.

²⁵I directed my mind to understand, to explore, to search out wisdom and explanations, and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the folly of madness.

¹⁰You have indeed defeated Edom, and your heart has become proud. Glory in that and stay at home. Why should you stir up trouble so that you fall—you and Judah with you?”

¹¹But Amaziah would not listen, so Jehoash king of Israel advanced. He and King Amaziah of Judah faced each other at Beth-shemesh in Judah.

¹⁶For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool!

⁷The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

⁵For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten.

³²He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.

³³The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number.

¹³O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame. All who turn away will be written in the dust, for they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water.

²²One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried.

¹⁰Though grace is shown to the wicked man, he does not learn righteousness. In the land of righteousness he acts unjustly and fails to see the majesty of the Lord.

²¹You have done these things, and I kept silent; you thought I was just like you. But now I rebuke you and accuse you to your face.

²²Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:

⁴Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

⁵But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

³Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

⁴“Where is the promise of His coming?” they will ask. “Ever since our fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has from the beginning of creation.”

⁴⁹And he begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.

⁵⁰The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate.

⁶He says to himself, “I will not be moved; from age to age I am free of distress.”

¹¹But the meek will inherit the land and delight in abundant prosperity.

⁵⁰His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation.

⁹if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

¹⁸The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their inheritance will last forever.

¹⁹In the time of evil they will not be ashamed, and in the days of famine they will be satisfied.

¹⁵In my futile life I have seen both of these: A righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.

¹⁴I know that everything God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God does it so that they should fear Him.

¹²For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?

¹¹Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.

²Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

¹⁸So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

²¹“There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

³⁰Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.

¹⁵In my futile life I have seen both of these: A righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.

¹⁵So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”

¹⁴The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also came to realize that one fate overcomes them both.

¹So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.

²It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.

³For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁷Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?

²⁴Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy his work. I have also seen that this is from the hand of God.

¹⁸Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of life that God has given him—for this is his lot.

¹²I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and do good while they live,

¹³and also that every man should eat and drink and find satisfaction in all his labor—this is the gift of God.

⁷Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works:

⁸Let your garments always be white, and never spare the oil for your head.

²²I have seen that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will come after him?

³They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

⁴For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected,

²³Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

¹³And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a miserable task God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!

²In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for bread to eat—for He gives sleep to His beloved.

⁷Since no one knows what will happen, who can tell him what is to come?

⁹All this I have seen, applying my mind to every deed that is done under the sun; there is a time when one man lords it over another to his own detriment.

⁸There is a man all alone, without even a son or brother. And though there is no end to his labor, his eyes are still not content with his wealth: “For whom do I toil and bereave my soul of enjoyment?” This too is futile—a miserable task.

¹¹He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end.

¹⁶When I tried to understand all this, it was troublesome in my sight

³³O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

²⁸Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.

⁷Can you fathom the deep things of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?

⁸They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

²³All this I tested by wisdom, saying, “I resolve to be wise.” But it was beyond me.

²⁴What exists is out of reach and very deep. Who can fathom it?