1. Who is like a wise one? And who knows the meaning of a matter? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.
2. I say, “Guard the sovereign’s command because of the oath before Elohim.
3. Do not be in a hurry to go from his presence. Do not take a stand in an evil matter, for he does whatever he pleases.”
4. Where the word of a sovereign is, there is power. And who says to him, “What are you doing?”
5. He who guards the command knows no evil matter. And the heart of the wise discerns both time and right-ruling,
6. Because for every matter there is a time and right-ruling, though the trouble of man is heavy upon him.
7. For he does not know what shall be; so who declares to him when it shall be?
8. No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, and no one has power in the day of death. There is no discharge in battle, and wrongness does not release those who are given to it.
9. All this I have seen; I applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun: There is a time in which a man rules over a man for his evil.
10. And so I saw the wrong ones buried, and they came and went from the place of set-apartness, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done. That too is futile.
11. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is filled in them to do evil.