Liber Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes, chapter 8, Vulgate and King James Version

Chapter 8 Vulgate

   1 Quis talis, ut sapiens est? Et quis cognovit solutionem re rum? Sapientia hominis illuminat vultum eius, et durities faciei illius commutatur.
   2 Os regis observa et propter iuramenta Dei
   3 ne festines recedere a facie eius neque permaneas in re mala, quia omne, quod voluerit, faciet.
   4 Quia sermo illius potestate plenus est, nec dicere ei quisquam potest: "Quare ita facis?".
   5 Qui custodit praeceptum, non experietur quidquam mali; tempus et iudicium cor sapientis intellegit.
   6 Omni enim negotio tempus est et iudicium, et multa hominis afflictio;
   7 ignorat enim quid futurum sit, nam quomodo sit futurum, quis nuntiabit ei?
   8 Non est in hominis potestate dominari super spiritum nec cohibere spiritum, nec habet potestatem supra diem mortis, nec ulla remissio est ingruente bello, neque salvabit impietas impium.
   9 Omnia haec consideravi et dedi cor meum cunctis operibus, quae fiunt sub sole, quo tempore dominatur homo homini in malum suum.
   10 Et ita vidi impios sepultos, discedentes de loco sancto; in oblivionem cadere in civitate, quod ita egerunt: sed et hoc vanitas est.
   11 Etenim, quia non profertur cito sententia contra opera mala, ideo cor filiorum hominum repletur, ut perpetrent mala.
   12 Nam peccator centies facit malum et prolongat sibi dies; verumtamen novi quod erit bonum timentibus Deum, qui verentur faciem eius.
   13 Non sit bonum impio, nec prolongabit dies suos quasi umbram, qui non timet faciem Domini.
   14 Est vanitas, quae fit super terram: sunt iusti, quibus mala proveniunt, quasi opera egerint impiorum, et sunt impii, quibus bona proveniunt, quasi iustorum facta habeant; sed et hoc vanissimum iudico.
   15 Laudavi igitur laetitiam quod non esset homini bonum sub sole, nisi quod comederet et biberet atque gauderet et hoc solum secum auferret de labore suo in diebus vitae suae, quos dedit ei Deus sub sole.
   16 Cum apposui cor meum, ut scirem sapientiam et intellegerem occupationem, quae versatur in terra, quod diebus et noctibus somnum non capit oculis,
   17 ecce intellexi quod omnium operum Dei nullam possit homo invenire rationem eorum, quae fiunt sub sole; et quanto plus laboraverit homo ad quaerendum, tanto minus inveniet; etiamsi dixerit sapiens se nosse, non poterit reperire.

Source: Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio, Sacrosanti Oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II, Ratione Habita, Iussu Pauli PP. VI Recognita, Auctoritate Ioannis Pauli PP. II Promulgata, Editio Typica Altera

King James Version

   1 Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.
   2 I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.
   3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.
   4 Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
   5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.
   6 ¶ Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
   7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
   8 There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
   9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
   10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.
   11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
   12 ¶ Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:
   13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
   14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.
   15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
   16 ¶ When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)
   17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.