Ecclesiastes 8:6-16

6 Because for every purpose there is a time and a judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
7 For he knoweth not that which shall be; for who can tell him when it shall be?
8 There is no man who 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 who are given to it.
9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein a man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
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.
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.
12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him.
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.
14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth: that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the works of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the works of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.
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 from his labor the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
16 When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth (for also is there that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes),
Third Millennium Bible (TMB), New Authorized Version, Copyright 1998 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc., Gary, SD 57237. All rights reserved.