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The Blue Letter Bible

Ecclesiastes 8 :: New International Version (NIV)

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:1

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:1 - Who is like the wise? Who knows the explanation of things? A person’s wisdom brightens their face and changes its hard appearance.

Obey the King

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:2

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:2 - Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:3

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:3 - Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:4

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:4 - Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:5

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:5 - Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:6

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:6 - For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:7

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:7 - Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come?

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:8

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:8 - As no one has power over the wind to contain it, so[fn] no one has power over the time of their death. As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:9

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:9 - All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own[fn] hurt.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:10

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:10 - Then too, I saw the wicked buried—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise[fn] in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:11

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:11 - When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:12

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:12 - Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:13

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:13 - Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:14

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:14 - There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:15

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:15 - So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:16

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:16 - When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night—

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Unchecked Copy Box Ecc 8:17

Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:17 - then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.
See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NIV Footnotes
Or over the human spirit to retain it, / and so
Or to their
Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint (Aquila); most Hebrew manuscripts and are forgotten
NIV

HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Used with permission. All rights reserved worldwide.


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For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.

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Ecclesiastes Chapter 8 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras