8: 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 ⁶⁴hardness of his face is changed.
⁶⁴Hb. strength Sept. Aram. read impudent is hated.

8: 2 I counsel thee, Keep the king’s command, and that in regard of the oath of God.
8: 3 Be not hasty to go out of his presence; persist not in an evil thing: for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.
8: 4 For the king’s word hath power; and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
8: 5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall know no evil thing; and a wise man’s heart discerneth time and judgment:
8: 6 for to every ⁶⁵purpose there is a time and judgment; because the ⁶⁶misery of man is great upon him:
⁶⁵Or, matter
⁶⁶Or, evil

8: 7 for he knoweth not that which shall be; ⁶⁷for who can tell him how it shall be?
⁶⁷Or, for even when it cometh to pass, who shall declare it unto him?

8: 8 There is no man that hath power over the ⁶⁸breath to retain his breath; neither hath he power over the day of death; and there is no discharge ⁶⁹in war: neither shall wickedness deliver him that is given to it.
⁶⁸Or, spirit or, wind (both times)
⁶⁹Or, in the battle:

8: 9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: ⁷⁰there is a time wherein one man hath power over another ⁷¹to his hurt.
⁷⁰Or, what time one man had power etc.
⁷¹Or, to his own hurt.

8: 10 So I saw the wicked buried, ⁷²and they came to the grave; and they that had done right went away from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city: this also is vanity.
⁷²Or, who had come and gone away from the holy place; and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: or, and men came and went...

8: 11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is ⁷³fully set in them to do evil.
⁷³Or, emboldened

8: 12 Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and prolong his days yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, that fear before him:
8: 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.
8: 14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that there are righteous men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.
8: 15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: ⁷⁴for that shall abide with him in his labor all the days of his life which God hath given him under the sun.
⁷⁴Or, and that this should accompany him

8: 16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the ⁷⁵business that is done upon the earth, (⁷⁶for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes,)
⁷⁵Or, travail
⁷⁶Or, how that neither by day nor by night do men see sleep with their eyes,

8: 17 then I beheld all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because however much a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yes moreover, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.