Obey the King

1Who is wise? who hath knowledge to make an aunswere? A mans wysdome maketh his face to shine: but vnshamefastnes putteth it out of fauour.

2Kepe the kynges commaundement, namely for the oth that thou hast made vnto God for the same. 3Be not hastie to go out of his sight, and see thou continue in no euyll thing: for whatsoeuer it pleaseth hym, that doth he. 4Like as when a king geueth a charge, his commaundement is mightie: Euen so, who may say vnto him, what doest thou?

5Who so kepeth the commaundement, shall feele no harme: but a wyse mans heart discerneth the tyme and iudgement. 6For euery thing wyll haue oportunitie and iudgement: and this is the thing that maketh men full of carefulnesse and sorowe. 7And why? a man knoweth not what is for to come: for who can tell hym when it shalbe? 8Neither is there any man that hath power ouer the spirite to kepe styll the spirite, nor to haue any power in the tyme of death, nor that can make an ende of the battayle, neither may vngodlynesse deliuer them that meddle withall. 9All these thinges haue I considered, and applied my mynde vnto euery worke that is vnder the sunne, howe one man hath lordship vpon another to his owne harme.

Fear God
(Isaiah 8:11–15)

10For I haue seene often the vngodly brought to their graues, and yet they haue returned into the citie agayne: and came from the place of holy men, whiche in the citie were growen out of memorie, as were those also that liued well: This is also a vayne thing. 11Because nowe that euyll workes are not hastyly punished, the heart of man geueth hym selfe ouer vnto wickednesse. 12Because an euyll person offendeth an hundred tymes, and God deferreth, geuing hym long life, therefore am I sure that it shall go well with them that feare God, whiche haue hym before their eyes. 13Againe, as for the vngodly it shall not be well with him, neither shall he prolong his dayes: but euen as a shadowe, so shall he be that feareth not God.

God’s Ways Are Mysterious

14Yet is there a vanitie vpon earth: There be iust men vnto whom it happeneth as though they had the workes of the vngodly: Againe, there be vngodly, with whom it goeth as though they had the workes of the righteous: This haue I called also a vayne thing. 15Therfore I commende gladnesse, because a man hath no better thing vnder the sunne, then to eate and drinke, and to be merie: for that shall he haue of his labour, al the dayes of his life which God geueth hym vnder the sunne.

16And so I applied my minde to learne wysdome, and to knowe the trauayle that is in the worlde, and that of suche a fashion, that I suffred not mine eyes to sleepe neither day nor night. 17I vnderstoode of all the workes of God, but it is not possible for a man to attayne vnto the workes that are done vnder the sunne: and though he bestowe his labour to seeke them out, yet can he not reach vnto them: yea though a wyse man would vndertake to know them, yet shall he not finde them.