1 Who is like the wise man? Who else can solve a problem? A man¡¯s wisdom
lights up his expression ¨C his stern look is changed.
2 Obey the command of the king because of the oath before God and
3 don¡¯t be eager to ignore it. Do not stubbornly support a bad cause,
for he will do what he pleases.
4 The king¡¯s word holds. Who will say to him, ¡°What are you doing?¡±
5 Whoever obeys a royal precept avoids trouble. The wise man knows the
time and the judgment ¨C 6 the time to act and the value of everything.
6 This misfortune weighs heavily on man:
7 he has no knowledge of what will happen. Who can tell him what will
happen?
8 No one controls the wind or holds back the day of death. Struggle is
useless and not even wickedness saves its author.
9 I have observed this and set myself to consider everything that is
done under the sun, when man is given the power of harming another.
10 And so I have seen the wicked buried and people come from the holy
place to honor them, forgetting how they acted. This, too, is futile.
11 It is because sentence against wrongdoing is not passed at once that
evil designs fill the human heart. 12 The sinner may do wrong a hundred
times and yet survive.
12 (I know well that there will be happiness for the God-fearing man be
cause he fears God,
13 but there will be no happiness for the wicked; and because he doesn¡¯t
fear God, he will pass like a shadow and his days will not last.)
14 Another kind of nonsense is found in what humans do on earth: the
righteous are treated as the wicked deserve, and the wicked, as the
righteous deserve. This, too, is mean ing less.
15 So I praise joy, since for man there is no happiness under the sun
other than eating, drinking and taking pleasure in his work throughout
the life God gives him under the sun.
16 When I set out to get wisdom and considered the human condition on
earth, by day or by night when peo ple sleep and are not conscious,
17 I saw that with regard to God¡¯s work, as a whole, no man is able to
discover what the work is that goes on under the sun; though he tire
himself searching, he will not find out. And if the wise man claims to
know, he does not.
------------------------------------------------------------
Comments Eclesiastes (Qohelet), Chapter 8
• 8.10-12 points out the great weakness of all moral preaching in a
world where saints are not legion: only the fear of the police is
effective. If God does not want to play the role of the policeman, who
will be honest (see Is 26:9-11)? In Old Testament times, God accepted to
be presented as such, and even, that the religious authorities should
punish in his name. Ecclesiastes would say: ¡°There is a time for
everything.¡± In Christian times the Churches wanted to continue this
way, which resulted in the Inquisition and the wars of religion. This is
almost unacceptable to us but in our disorientated world certain people
look with sympathy towards those religions where the whole community
takes charge of punishing and eliminating those who violate the moral
and religious code.
We can be almost sure that the phrase we put in parenthesis in verse 12
was added later, since many of the faithful of that time would be
shocked by such doubts concerning divine reward and punishment.