Dual Panel1Who here is wise enough? Who has insight into the meaning of anything? Wisdom lights up a person's face, and the boldness of his aspect is changed.
2Do as the king commands you, and if you have to swear by God,
3do not rush into it. Do not persist in something which displeases the king, and leave his presence, for he can do whatever he likes.
4His word is sovereign, and who can call in question what he does?
5Whoever obeys a command will come to no harm. One who is wise knows in his heart the right time and method for action.
6Every enterprise has its time and method, although man is greatly troubled
7by ignorance of the future; who can tell him what it will bring?
8It is not in anyone's power to retain the breath of life, and no one has power over the day of death. In war no one can lay aside his arms, no wealth will save its possessor.
9All this I have seen, having applied my mind to everything done under the sun, at a time when one person had power over another and could make him suffer.
10It was then that I saw scoundrels approaching and even entering the holy place; and they went about the city priding themselves on having done right. This too is futility.
11It is because sentence upon a wicked act is not promptly carried out that evildoers are emboldened to act.
12A sinner may do wrong and live to old age, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God: their fear of him ensures this.
13But it will not be well with the evildoer, nor will his days lengthen like a shadow, because he does not fear God.
14There is a futile thing found on earth: sometimes the just person gets what is due to the unjust, and the unjust what is due to the just. I maintain that this too is futility.
15So I commend enjoyment, since there is nothing good for anyone to do here under the sun but to eat and drink and enjoy himself; this is all that will remain with him to reward his toil throughout the span of life which God grants him here under the sun.
16I applied my mind to acquire wisdom and to observe the tasks undertaken on earth, when mortal eyes are never closed in sleep day or night;
17and always I perceived that God has so ordered it that no human being should be able to discover what is happening here under the sun. However hard he may try, he will not find out; the wise may think they know, but they cannot find the truth of it.