Ecclesiastes 8:10-13
The Message
One Fate for Everybody
10 One time I saw wicked men given a solemn burial in holy ground. When the people returned to the city, they delivered flowery eulogies—and in the very place where wicked acts were done by those very men! More smoke. Indeed.
11 Because the sentence against evil deeds is so long in coming, people in general think they can get by with murder.
12-13 Even though a person sins and gets by with it hundreds of times throughout a long life, I’m still convinced that the good life is reserved for the person who fears God, who lives reverently in his presence, and that the evil person will not experience a “good” life. No matter how many days he lives, they’ll all be as flat and colorless as a shadow—because he doesn’t fear God.
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Ecclesiastes 8:10-12
New International Version
10 Then too, I saw the wicked buried(A)—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise[a] in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.
11 When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong. 12 Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better(B) with those who fear God,(C) who are reverent before him.(D)
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 8:10 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint (Aquila); most Hebrew manuscripts and are forgotten
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