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The Blue Letter Bible

Ecclesiastes 8 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:1 - How wonderful to be wise,
to analyze and interpret things.
Wisdom lights up a person’s face,
softening its harshness.
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Ecclesiastes 8:1 Commentaries
Obedience to the King
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:2 - Obey the king since you vowed to God that you would.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:3 - Don’t try to avoid doing your duty, and don’t stand with those who plot evil, for the king can do whatever he wants.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:4 - His command is backed by great power. No one can resist or question it.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:5 - Those who obey him will not be punished. Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right,
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:6 - for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:7 - Indeed, how can people avoid what they don’t know is going to happen?
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:8 - None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked.
The Wicked and the Righteous
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:9 - I have thought deeply about all that goes on here under the sun, where people have the power to hurt each other.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:10 - I have seen wicked people buried with honor. Yet they were the very ones who frequented the Temple and are now praised[fn] in the same city where they committed their crimes! This, too, is meaningless.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:11 - When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:12 - But even though a person sins a hundred times and still lives a long time, I know that those who fear God will be better off.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:13 - The wicked will not prosper, for they do not fear God. Their days will never grow long like the evening shadows.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:14 - And this is not all that is meaningless in our world. In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so meaningless!
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:15 - So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world than to eat, drink, and enjoy life. That way they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:16 - In my search for wisdom and in my observation of people’s burdens here on earth, I discovered that there is ceaseless activity, day and night.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 8:17 - I realized that no one can discover everything God is doing under the sun. Not even the wisest people discover everything, no matter what they claim.
NLT Footnotes
As in some Hebrew manuscripts and Greek version; many Hebrew manuscripts read and are forgotten.
NLT

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

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

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Ecclesiastes Chapter 8 — Additional Translations: