¹Who is like the wise one? And who knows the interpretation of a word? The wisdom of man makes shine his face, and the strength of his face is changed.

²I say: keep the king's mouth, and in view of the oath of God.

³Do not be hasty to go from his presence; do not stand by an evil word; for all that he desires he does.

⁴Since the word of a king is mastery; and who can say to him, 'What are you doing?'

⁵One who keeps a command will not know an evil word, and a wise heart knows time and justice.

⁶For every matter has a time and justice; for the evil of man is great upon him.

⁷For he does not know what will be; for how it will be, who can tell him?

⁸There is no man who has mastery over the breath to restrain the breath, and there is no mastery over the day of death, and there is no discharge in the war; and wickedness will not deliver its owner.

⁹All this I saw, and I set my heart to every work that is done under the sun: a time when one person has mastery over another for evil to him.

¹⁰And so I saw wicked people buried, and they came, and from a holy place they went away; and they were forgotten in the city where they had done so; also this is vapor.

¹¹Because the edict of the evil work is not done quickly, therefore the heart of the children of man is full in them to do evil.

¹²Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and goes on long for himself, yet I also know that it will be good for those who fear God, who fear before him.

¹³And it will not be good for the wicked, and he will not prolong his days, like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

¹⁴There is a vapor which is done on the land, that there are righteous ones to whom it touches according to the work of the wicked, and there are wicked ones to whom it touches according to the work of the righteous. I said that also this is vapor.

¹⁵And I praise gladness, because there is no good for a person under the sun except to eat, to drink, and to rejoice; and it will join him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

¹⁶When I set my heart to know wisdom and to see the task that is done on the land — for even by day and by night, he does not see sleep with his eyes.

¹⁷And I saw all the work of God, that a person is not able to find the work that is done under the sun, however much a person toils to seek, yet he will not find; and even if the wise one says he knows, he will not be able to find.