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Ecclesiastes 8 - Good News Bible bible

Ecclesiastes 8

¹Only the wise know what things really mean. Wisdom makes them smile and makes their frowns disappear.

²Do what the king says, and don't make any rash promises to God.

³The king can do anything he likes, so depart from his presence; don't stay in such a dangerous place.

⁴The king acts with authority, and no one can challenge what he does.

⁵As long as you obey his commands, you are safe, and a wise person knows how and when to do it.

⁶There is a right time and a right way to do everything, but we know so little!

⁷None of us knows what is going to happen, and there is no one to tell us.

⁸No one can keep from dying or put off the day of death. That is a battle we cannot escape; we cannot cheat our way out.

⁹I saw all this when I thought about the things that are done in this world, a world where some people have power and others have to suffer under them.

¹⁰Yes, I have seen the wicked buried and in their graves, but on the way back from the cemetery people praise them in the very city where they did their evil. It is useless.

¹¹Why do people commit crimes so readily? Because crime is not punished quickly enough.

¹²A sinner may commit a hundred crimes and still live. Oh yes, I know what they say: "If you obey God, everything will be all right,

¹³but it will not go well for the wicked. Their life is like a shadow and they will die young, because they do not obey God."

¹⁴But this is nonsense. Look at what happens in the world: sometimes the righteous get the punishment of the wicked, and the wicked get the reward of the righteous. I say it is useless.

¹⁵So I am convinced that we should enjoy ourselves, because the only pleasure we have in this life is eating and drinking and enjoying ourselves. We can at least do this as we labor during the life that God has given us in this world.

¹⁶Whenever I tried to become wise and learn what goes on in the world, I realized that you could stay awake night and day

¹⁷and never be able to understand what God is doing. However hard you try, you will never find out. The wise may claim to know, but they don't.