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10 I have seen wicked people buried with honor. Yet they were the very ones who frequented the Temple and are now praised[a] in the same city where they committed their crimes! This, too, is meaningless. 11 When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong. 12 But even though a person sins a hundred times and still lives a long time, I know that those who fear God will be better off. 13 The wicked will not prosper, for they do not fear God. Their days will never grow long like the evening shadows.

14 And this is not all that is meaningless in our world. In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so meaningless!

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Footnotes

  1. 8:10 As in some Hebrew manuscripts and Greek version; many Hebrew manuscripts read and are forgotten.

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) 13 Yet because the wicked do not fear God,(E) it will not go well with them, and their days(F) will not lengthen like a shadow.

14 There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve.(G) This too, I say, is meaningless.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 8:10 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint (Aquila); most Hebrew manuscripts and are forgotten