Kohelet 8
1. Who is the chacham? And who knoweth the pesher (interpretation, explanation) of a thing? A man’s chochmah maketh his face bright, and the rudeness of his face is changed.
2. I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment, and that because of the shevuat Elohim (the oath of G-d).
3. Be not hasty to go out of his sight; stand not in a rah (an evil matter); for he executeth whatsoever pleaseth him.
4. For the devar melech is shilton (supreme), and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
5. Whoso is shomer mitzvah shall meet no harm; and a lev of a chacham discerneth both et (time) and mishpat (judgment).
6. Because every matter has its et (time) and mishpat (judgment), though the ra’at haAdam be great upon him.
7. For he has no da’as of that which shall be; for who can tell him how it will be?
8. There is no adam that hath power over the ruach to restrain ruach; neither hath he shilton (power) over the yom hamavet; and there is no discharge in war; neither shall resha deliver its possessor.
9. All this have I seen, and applied my lev unto every ma’aseh (labor, work) that has been done under the shemesh wherein one adam ruleth over another adam to the other’s hurt.
10. And so I saw the resha’im buried, who had come and gone out of the mekom kadosh (the holy place), and they were forgotten in the city where they had done such things; this is also hevel.
11. Because pitgam (sentence) against a ma’aseh hara’ah (an evil work) is not executed speedily, therefore the lev of the bnei haAdam is fully set in them to do rah.
12. Though a choteh do rah an hundred times, and his yamim be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear HaElohim, which fear before Hashem;
13. But it shall not be well with the rasha, neither shall he lengthen his yamim like a tzel (shadow); because he feareth not before Elohim.
14. There is a hevel which is done upon ha’aretz; that there be tzaddikim, unto whom it happeneth according to the ma’aseh haresha’im; again, there be resha’im, to whom it happeneth according to the ma’aseh hatzaddikim; I say that this also is hevel.
15. Then I commended simchah, because a man hath no better thing under the shemesh, than to eat, and to drink, and to have simchah; for that shall accompany him in his amal the yamim of his life, which HaElohim giveth him under the shemesh.
16. When I applied mine lev to have da’as of chochmah, and to see the business that is done upon ha’aretz, though one’s eynayim see sleep neither yom nor lailah,
17. then I beheld kol ma’aseh HaElohim, that haAdam cannot comprehend the ma’aseh that is done under the shemesh; because though haAdam labor to seek it out, yet he shall not comprehend it; moreover, though a chacham claim to have da’as of it, yet shall he not be able to comprehend it.