| International Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1Who is really wise? Who knows how to interpret this saying: "A person's wisdom improves his appearance, softening a harsh countenance." | 1How wonderful to be wise, to analyze and interpret things. Wisdom lights up a person’s face, softening its harshness. Obedience to the King |
| 2I advise doing what the king says, especially regarding an oath to God. | 2Obey the king since you vowed to God that you would. |
| 3Don't be in a hurry to leave him, and don't persist in evil, for he does whatever he pleases. | 3Don’t try to avoid doing your duty, and don’t stand with those who plot evil, for the king can do whatever he wants. |
| 4Since a king's command is powerful, who is able to challenge him, asking, "What are you doing?" | 4His command is backed by great power. No one can resist or question it. |
| 5Whoever obeys his commands will not experience harm, and the wise in heart will discern both the appropriate time and response. | 5Those who obey him will not be punished. Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right, |
| 6Indeed, there is an appropriate time and a response for every circumstance, since human misery weighs heavily upon him. | 6for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble. |
| 7For he has absolutely no knowledge what will happen, since who can declare to him when it will come about? | 7Indeed, how can people avoid what they don’t know is going to happen? |
| 8Just as no human being has control over the wind to restrain it, so also no human being has control over the day of his death. Just as no one is discharged during war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it. | 8None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked. The Wicked and the Righteous |
| 9I observed all this, and carefully considered everything that is undertaken on earth, especially the time when someone dominates another to his detriment. | 9I have thought deeply about all that goes on here under the sun, where people have the power to hurt each other. |
| 10So I watched the wicked being entombed. They used to come in and out of the Holy Place, but now they are forgotten in the city, where they used to work. This, too, is pointless. | 10I have seen wicked people buried with honor. Yet they were the very ones who frequented the Temple and are now praised in the same city where they committed their crimes! This, too, is meaningless. |
| 11Whenever a sentence for a crime is not carried out swiftly, the human mind becomes determined to commit evil. | 11When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong. |
| 12Even though a sinner does what is wrong a hundred times and still survives, nevertheless I also know that things will go well for those who fear God, who fear in his presence. | 12But 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. |
| 13But things will not go well for the wicked person: he will not lengthen his life like a shadow, since he has no fear before God. | 13The wicked will not prosper, for they do not fear God. Their days will never grow long like the evening shadows. |
| 14Here is a pointless thing that happens on earth: A righteous man receives what happens to the wicked, and a wicked man receives what happens to the righteous. I concluded that this, too, is pointless. | 14And 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! |
| 15So then I recommended enjoyment of life, because it is better on earth for a man to eat, drink, and be happy, since this will stay with him throughout his struggle all the days of his life, which God grants him on earth. | 15So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world than to eat, drink, and enjoy life. That way they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun. |
| 16When I dedicated myself to experience wisdom and to observe what is undertaken on earth—even going without sleep day and night— | 16In my search for wisdom and in my observation of people’s burdens here on earth, I discovered that there is ceaseless activity, day and night. |
| 17I saw all of it as the activity of God. Frankly, a human being cannot understand what happens on earth, because however hard a man works to discover it, he will not find out. Despite what he thinks he knows, he will not be able to figure it out. | 17I realized that no one can discover everything God is doing under the sun. Not even the wisest people discover everything, no matter what they claim. |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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