King James Version KJV
Good News Translation GNT
1 Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.
1
Only the wise know what things really mean. Wisdom makes them smile and makes their frowns disappear.
2 I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.
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Do what the king says, and don't make any rash promises to God.
3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.
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The king can do anything he likes, so depart from his presence; don't stay in such a dangerous place.
4 Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
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The king acts with authority, and no one can challenge what he does.
5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.
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As long as you obey his commands, you are safe, and a wise person knows how and when to do it.
6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
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There is a right time and a right way to do everything, but we know so little!
7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
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None of us knows what is going to happen, and there is no one to tell us.
8 There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
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No one can keep from dying or put off the day of death. That is a battle we cannot escape; we cannot cheat our way out.
9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
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I saw all this when I thought about the things that are done in this world, a world where some people have power and others have to suffer under them.
10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.
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Yes, I have seen the wicked buried and in their graves, but on the way back from the cemetery people praise them in the very city where they did their evil. It is useless.
11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
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Why do people commit crimes so readily? Because crime is not punished quickly enough.
12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:
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A sinner may commit a hundred crimes and still live. Oh yes, I know what they say: "If you obey God, everything will be all right,
13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
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but it will not go well for the wicked. Their life is like a shadow and they will die young, because they do not obey God."
14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.
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But this is nonsense. Look at what happens in the world: sometimes the righteous get the punishment of the wicked, and the wicked get the reward of the righteous. I say it is useless.
15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
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So I am convinced that we should enjoy ourselves, because the only pleasure we have in this life is eating and drinking and enjoying ourselves. We can at least do this as we labor during the life that God has given us in this world.
16 When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)
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Whenever I tried to become wise and learn what goes on in the world, I realized that you could stay awake night and day
17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.
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and never be able to understand what God is doing. However hard you try, you will never find out. The wise may claim to know, but they don't.
The King James Version is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.