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Ecclesiastes 8
Biblia Sacra Vulgata
Ecclesiastes 8
Biblia Sacra Vulgata
8 Sapientia hominis lucet in vultu ejus, et potentissimus faciem illius commutabit.
2 Ego os regis observo, et praecepta juramenti Dei.
3 Ne festines recedere a facie ejus, neque permaneas in opere malo: quia omne quod voluerit faciet.
4 Et sermo illius potestate plenus est, nec dicere ei quisquam potest: Quare ita facis?
5 Qui custodit praeceptum non experietur quidquam mali. Tempus et responsionem cor sapientis intelligit.
6 Omni negotio tempus est, et opportunitas: et multa hominis afflictio,
7 quia ignorat praeterita, et futura nullo scire potest nuntio.
8 Non est in hominis potestate prohibere spiritum, nec habet potestatem in die mortis: nec sinitur quiescere ingruente bello, neque salvabit impietas impium.
9 Omnia haec consideravi, et dedi cor meum in cunctis operibus quae fiunt sub sole. Interdum dominatur homo homini in malum suum.
10 Vidi impios sepultos, qui etiam cum adhuc viverent in loco sancto erant, et laudabantur in civitate quasi justorum operum. Sed et hoc vanitas est.
11 Etenim quia non profertur cito contra malos sententia, absque timore ullo filii hominum perpetrant mala.
12 Attamen peccator ex eo quod centies facit malum, et per patientiam sustentatur; ego cognovi quod erit bonum timentibus Deum, qui verentur faciem ejus.
13 Non sit bonum impio, nec prolongentur dies ejus, sed quasi umbra transeant qui non timent faciem Domini.
14 Est et alia vanitas quae fit super terram: sunt justi quibus mala proveniunt quasi opera egerint impiorum: et sunt impii qui ita securi sunt quasi justorum facta habeant. Sed et hoc vanissimum judico.
15 Laudavi igitur laetitiam; quod non esset homini bonum sub sole, nisi quod comederet, et biberet, atque gauderet, et hoc solum secum auferret de labore suo, in diebus vitae suae quos dedit ei Deus sub sole.
16 Et apposui cor meum ut scirem sapientiam, et intelligerem distentionem quae versatur in terra. Est homo qui diebus et noctibus somnum non capit oculis.
17 Et intellexi quod omnium operum Dei nullam possit homo invenire rationem eorum quae fiunt sub sole; et quanto plus laboraverit ad quaerendum, tanto minus inveniat: etiam si dixerit sapiens se nosse, non poterit reperire.
Ecclesiastes 8
New International Version
Ecclesiastes 8
New International Version
8 Who is like the wise?
Who knows the explanation of things?
A person’s wisdom brightens their face
and changes its hard appearance.
Obey the King
2 Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God. 3 Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence.(A) Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. 4 Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, “What are you doing?(B)”
5 Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm,
and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.
6 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter,(C)
though a person may be weighed down by misery.
7 Since no one knows the future,
who can tell someone else what is to come?
8 As no one has power over the wind to contain it,
so[a] no one has power over the time of their death.
As no one is discharged in time of war,
so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
9 All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own[b] hurt. 10 Then too, I saw the wicked buried(D)—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise[c] 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(E) with those who fear God,(F) who are reverent before him.(G) 13 Yet because the wicked do not fear God,(H) it will not go well with them, and their days(I) 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.(J) This too, I say, is meaningless.(K) 15 So I commend the enjoyment of life(L), because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink(M) and be glad.(N) Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.
16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom(O) and to observe the labor that is done on earth(P)—people getting no sleep day or night— 17 then I saw all that God has done.(Q) No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.(R)
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 8:8 Or over the human spirit to retain it, / and so
- Ecclesiastes 8:9 Or to their
- Ecclesiastes 8:10 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint (Aquila); most Hebrew manuscripts and are forgotten
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