Ecclesiastes 8 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Who is truly like the wise person? Who else knows how to read what life means? Wisdom lights up a person's face — even the hardest expression softens.

I say: respect the king's command, especially because of the oath you made before God.

Don't be in a rush to leave his presence. And don't dig in on a bad cause — because the king does whatever he wants.

Since the king's word carries absolute power, who can challenge him and say, "What do you think you're doing?"

Whoever keeps the command will know no harm. The wise heart knows the right time and the right way.

For every matter has its right time and its right way — even though the weight of human trouble presses down hard.

No one knows what is coming next — who can tell anyone what will happen?

No one has power over the wind to hold it back, and no one has power over the day of death. There's no discharge in that war, and corruption won't rescue those who practice it.

I've seen all this. I've applied my mind to everything done under the sun — where one person has power over another, and it crushes them.

And then I saw the corrupt buried with honor — they used to walk in and out of the sacred place, and they were praised in the very city where they did their damage. This too is vapor.

When the sentence for a corrupt act isn't carried out quickly, the human heart fills with schemes to do more damage.

Even though someone who does wrong commits a hundred offenses and still lives a long life, I also know this: it will go well for those who stand in awe of God — who live with reverence before him.

But it will not go well for the corrupt. Their days are like a shadow that passes — because they don't live with reverence before God.

There's something that happens on earth that seems completely wrong: upright people get what the corrupt deserve, and corrupt people get what the upright deserve. I say this too is vapor.

So I recommend joy — because there's nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and experience gladness. This is what stays with you through all the hard work of the days God gives you under the sun.

When I set my mind to understand wisdom and to observe all the restless activity on earth — how people's eyes never close for sleep, day or night —

I saw everything God has done, and I realized: no one can figure out what happens under the sun. No matter how hard people search, they can't find it. Even if the wise claim to understand — they can't actually grasp it.