| King James Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1Who 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. | 1How wonderful to be wise, to analyze and interpret things. Wisdom lights up a person’s face, softening its harshness. Obedience to the King |
| 2I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God. | 2Obey the king since you vowed to God that you would. |
| 3Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. | 3Don’t try to avoid doing your duty, and don’t stand with those who plot evil, for the king can do whatever he wants. |
| 4Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou? | 4His command is backed by great power. No one can resist or question it. |
| 5Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. | 5Those who obey him will not be punished. Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right, |
| 6Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him. | 6for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble. |
| 7For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be? | 7Indeed, how can people avoid what they don’t know is going to happen? |
| 8There 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. | 8None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked. The Wicked and the Righteous |
| 9All 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. | 9I have thought deeply about all that goes on here under the sun, where people have the power to hurt each other. |
| 10And 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. | 10I have seen wicked people buried with honor. Yet they were the very ones who frequented the Temple and are now praised in the same city where they committed their crimes! This, too, is meaningless. |
| 11Because 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. | 11When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong. |
| 12Though 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: | 12But even though a person sins a hundred times and still lives a long time, I know that those who fear God will be better off. |
| 13But 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. | 13The wicked will not prosper, for they do not fear God. Their days will never grow long like the evening shadows. |
| 14There 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. | 14And this is not all that is meaningless in our world. In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so meaningless! |
| 15Then 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. | 15So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world than to eat, drink, and enjoy life. That way they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun. |
| 16When 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:) | 16In my search for wisdom and in my observation of people’s burdens here on earth, I discovered that there is ceaseless activity, day and night. |
| 17Then 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. | 17I realized that no one can discover everything God is doing under the sun. Not even the wisest people discover everything, no matter what they claim. |
| King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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