Ecclesiastes 8

₁No one has so much wisdom that he can understand everything. Someone who is wise is friendly and happy.

₂Listen to the king and do what he says, because you have promised God that you will obey the king. ₃Don't go away from the king quickly or argue with him. Don't say anything wrong to him because the king can do what he wants. ₄The king is the most important man and no one can tell him what to do or ask him to explain why he has done something. ₅If you do what the king says, you will not have problems. If you are wise, you will do the right thing at the right time. ₆There is a right time for everything and there is a right way to do it. Do it, even if it brings you a lot of trouble. ₇No one knows what will happen tomorrow. There is no one who can tell what things will be like in the future. Only God can. ₈No one can stop the wind from blowing, no one can decide when he must die and, in a time of war, no soldier can go home and say he does not want to fight. If someone has trouble, it will not help him to do wrong. It will not save him.

₉I saw all of this and I tried to understand everything that people do in this world, where people oppress other people and make them suffer.

₁₀I have also seen people who have done wrong, and who died and were buried. Before they died, they often went to the temple, and after they had died, people praised them in the cities where they had done wrong. Also this is not as it should be.

₁₁If people have done wrong but they are not punished immediately, they will continue to do wrong and other people will do wrong too. ₁₂Some sinners do more than 100 bad things and they live for a long time, but I know this: All will be well with people who respect God and serve Him, ₁₃but all will not be well with people who do wrong and do not respect God or serve Him. They will not live for a long time. They will disappear quickly like a shadow.

₁₄There is something in the world that is not as it should be: There are people who live in the right way, but some bad things happen to them, things that should happen to people who do wrong. And there are people who are doing bad things, but then good things happen to them, things that should happen to people who live in the right way. This is also not as it should be. ₁₅I say it is best to enjoy life. The best one can do in this life on earth is to eat and drink and enjoy things. A person can do that while he works hard in the life that God gives him in this world.

₁₆I have tried very hard to understand what wisdom is and I tried to see what people do on earth because they are always busy and they don't sleep a lot, in the day or at night. ₁₇And then I saw how God has made everything and I saw people trying hard to understand everything that happens in this world, but they don't understand it. Even when a wise man says he understands it, he does not. No one can really understand everything that happens in this world.