1: Who 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. |
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2: I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in
regard of the oath of God. |
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3:
Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil
thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. |
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4: Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say
unto him, What doest thou? |
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5: Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a
wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. |
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6: Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore
the misery of man is great upon him. |
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7: For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him
when it shall be? |
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8: There 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. |
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9: All 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. |
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10: And 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. |
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11: Because 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. |
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12: Though 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: |
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13: But 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. |
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14: There 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. |
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15: Then 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. |
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16: When 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:) |
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17: Then 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. |