Ecclesiastes 8
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 8
The Smile of a Wise Man[a]
1 Who is like the wise man?
Who else knows how to interpret things?
A man’s wisdom lights up his face,
softening the hardness of his countenance.
When Man Dominates Man.[b] 2 Obey the command of the king because of your sacred oath, 3 and do not be hasty to ignore it. Do not support him in some evil scheme, for he does whatever he pleases. 4 Since his word is sovereign, who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
5 Whoever obeys a command will come to no harm,
and the wise mind will know the time and the way.
6 For there is a time and a way for everything,
although a man’s troubles are a great affliction.
7 For he is ignorant of what the future holds,
inasmuch as no one will make known to him what is in store.
8 No one has it in his power
to restrain the wind from blowing
or to forestall the day of death.
No one can escape the perils of war,
nor can wickedness preserve those who engage in it.
9 All this I have observed as I carefully concentrated my mind on everything that is done under the sun, while one person tyrannizes another and causes suffering.
10 The Desire To Do Evil. Meanwhile I have observed the wicked being carried to their graves. They used to approach and enter the holy place, and they were praised in the city for having done such things. This also is vanity.[c]
11 Because the sentence for committing an evil act is not carried out quickly, people’s hearts are prone to act wickedly. 12 Even though the sinner does wrong a hundred times and continues to live, I am confident that things will go well for those who fear God because of their fear of him. 13 However, things will not go well with the wicked, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow, because they do not stand in fear before God.
14 What Constitutes Happiness.[d] Another vanity that takes place on earth is that sometimes righteous people are treated as though they had acted in an evil way, and wicked people are treated as though they had lived righteous lives. This too, I say, is vanity. 15 Therefore, I commend enjoyment, since there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. This is his reward for his toil during the days of life that God grants him under the sun.
How To Know?
16 The Claims of a Wise Man. Having pursued my goal to acquire wisdom and to observe the tasks undertaken on earth by man, whose eyes do not find rest either by day or by night, 17 I came to the realization that man is unable to discover all God’s work[e] that is done under the sun. However great an effort a man exerts in this search, he will never succeed. A wise man may claim to know, but he is in no way able to do so.
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 8:1 With a bit of meditation and a serene judgment, even the distresses of life mentioned in Eccl 7:1-7 become less dramatic.
- Ecclesiastes 8:2 The kingship is recognized as being of divine institution (see 2 Sam 8; Ps 89); it is part of this sacred world to which human beings must be submissive. In any case, it is better to keep account of the pretense of power that holds humans at its mercy and before which they remain without recourse. But no matter how great it is, power does not have the last word in the events of the world.
- Ecclesiastes 8:10 The text of this verse is badly transmitted and is difficult to translate.
- Ecclesiastes 8:14 Since things are the way they are and situations are such as we have just understood them, we must accept the modest joy of each day rather than becoming weary in trying to investigate the merits and demerits of human beings. See also note on Eccl 2:24-26.
- Ecclesiastes 8:17 Unable to discover all God’s work: see Deut 29:28 for what humans can and cannot know.
