"8 Who is like the wise?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
A man's wisdom makes his face shine,
and the hardness of his face is changed.
2 I say: Keep the king's command, because of God's oath to him. 3 Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. 4 For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” 5 Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. 6 For there is a time and a way for everything, although man's troublelies heavy on him. 7 For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? 8 No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. 9 All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.
10 Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. 11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. 12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. 13 But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15 And I commend joy, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.
16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one's eyes see sleep, 17 then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out."
Ecclesiastes 8:1-17
Here are further observations in practical wisdom. One needs to read over 1-8 a few times before the gist of their meaning begins to emerge. And what emerges is the concept of ultimate authority, law and order, as vested in and represented by the king: 'Keep the king's commandment' (2), for 'Where the word of a king is, there is power’ (4). Some of the phrases used in these verses are obscure, and are capable of different interpretations. Is 1, for example, a general statement about the value of wisdom, and that wisdom transforms a man's face, taking the 'hardness' (RSV), or the boldness, in the sense of impudence, from it? This would make good sense, and it is a very true observation. But scholars think that it may have particular reference to the general theme of the passage, i.e. attitude to authority. It would then mean: 'If you are wise, you will control your facial expression in the presence of the king, whatever you think'. The RSV renders 2 differently from the AV: 'Keep the king's command, and because of your sacred oath be not dismayed', i.e. 'When you think that something is irksome, such as, for example, bad taxes, submit to them. Remember your responsibility as a citizen'. If this is a legitimate rendering, then 3 would mean, in effect, 'Do not offer your resignation when the king is arbitrary in his actions toward you. Restrain yourself, and do not stamp out impulsively'. The phrase in the AV 'Stand not in an evil thing' would then mean 'Do not persist in fruitless argument when some difficult matter arises' for it is the king, after all, who has the final say. In 5, we learn that the wise man will have ability, even when the king is arbitrary and unjust, to know when to act and what to do. Practical wisdom gives a man knowledge of how to time his actions, and a sense of fitness in them. Man, after all, has enough trouble already, without inviting more through open defiance of the king in an out-of-step and inappropriate way (6, 7).