Obey the King

1Who as the wise one? and who will know the interpretation of the word? The wisdom of man shall enlighten his face, and the hard of face shall be hated.

2I am to watch the king's mouth by reason of the oath of God. 3Thou shalt not hasten going from his face: thou shalt not stand by the word of evil; for he shall do all that he will desire. 4Wheresoever the word of a king, it is powerful: and who shall say to him, What wilt thou do?

5He watching the command knew no evil word: and time and judgment the wise one will know. 6To every inclination there is time and judgment; for man's evil is great upon him. 7For he will not know what shall be: for as it shall be who shall announce to him? 8No man having power in spirit to restrain the spirit: and no power in the day of death: and no sending forth in war; and injustice shall not deliver its possessors. 9All this I saw, and giving my heart to every work which was done under the sun: a time which man had power over man for evil to him.

Fear God
(Isaiah 8:11–15)

10And so then I saw the unjust buried, and they came and they will go from the holy place, and they will be forgotten in the city where they did thus: also this is vanity. 11Because a decree was not done quickly upon an evil work, for this the heart of the sons of man was filled in them to do evil. 12Whoever sinned, doing evil a hundred, and it being prolonged to him, for also I know that it will be to those fearing God, who shall be afraid from his face. 13And it shall not be good to the unjust one; he shall not lengthen the days as a shadow, for he feared not from before the face of God.

God’s Ways Are Mysterious

14There is vanity which was done upon the earth; that there is the just which it comes upon them according to the work of the unjust: and there is the unjust, it comes upon them according to the work of the just. I said, Also this is vanity. 15And I praised joy, because there is no good to man under the sun but to eat and to drink, and to rejoice: for this shall lodge with him in his labor the days of his life which God gave to him under the sun.

16According as I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to see the labor that was done upon the earth: for also in the day and in the night he saw not sleep with his eyes. 17And I saw all the work of God, that no man shall be able to find out the work that was done under the sun in whatsoever a man shall labor to seek out, and he shall not find: and also if the wise one shall say to know, he shall not be able to find.