The Preacher says to keep the king's command and notes that no one has power over the day of death. When sentence against a wicked deed is not carried out quickly, people are encouraged to do evil. He commends enjoyment of life, though no one can discover God's work.
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 .
2 I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment , and that in regard of the oath of God .
3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight : stand not in an evil thing ; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.
4 Where the word of a king is, there is power : and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing : and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment .
6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment , therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
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.
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 .
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 .
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 .
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:
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 :)
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 further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.