"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
Another 'under the sun' observation follows in 10. The NIV rendering is preferable to the AV here (which see). One commentator says 'The evildoers not only find success in this life, but everybody comes to their funeral, and their evil deeds are forgotten in the very place where they were perpetrated'. This is a familiar problem in the Old Testament, particularly in the Psalms: 'Why do the wicked prosper?' But another angle is given us in 11ff, where it is made plain that God catches up with men in the end. One recalls the story of a farmer who once wrote to the Press the following letter:
'Dear Sir, - I have been trying an experiment. I have a field of corn which I ploughed on Sunday. I planted it on Sunday. I cultivated it on Sunday. I cut it and hauled it to the barn on Sunday. And I find that I have more corn to the acre than has been gathered by any of my neighbours this October.'
The farmer was sure that the editor could have no answer to the sneer implied in it. But imagine his feelings when in the next issue of the paper he read his own letter in print, and at the end of this, one sentence:
'God does not make full settlement in October.'
In 13, life 'under the sun' for the evil man, even though it may be long, is as a shadow; whereas for the good, even a short life is but the promise and prelude of a long eternity. This surely more than offsets the perplexities and mysteries underlined once again in 14: we do not have the answers to these enigmas; but it is enough for us to know that God does have them, and will ensure that all will be well in the end for those who trust in Him.