1 Who is comparable to the wise, and who understands the interpretation {pesher: explanatory insight} of a matter? A person’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the sternness {oz: firm hardened look} of his face is changed.
2 I say, Keep the king’s command {pi-melekh: mouth of king}, because of the oath of God {Elohim, Authority Upholder}.
3 Do not be hasty to go from his presence {mipanav: audience before authority}; do not stand in an evil matter {ra: moral wrongdoing}, for whatever he pleases, he does.
4 Where the word of a king {melekh: royal ruler} is, there is authority {šilṭôn: sovereign power}; and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
5 Whoever keeps {shomer: faithful observance} the commandment will know no evil thing, and a wise heart discerns both time and judgment {mishpat: rightful decision}.
6 For to every purpose there is a time and a judgment {mishpat: legal decision}; for the misery {raʿat: distress, adversity} of man is great upon him.
7 For he does not know {yodea: to perceive with certainty} what will be, for who can declare {yaggid: to declare or report} to him how it will be?
8 There is no man who has power over the spirit {ruach: wind or breath} to restrain the spirit, and there is no authority on the day of death, and there is no release in the battle {milchamah: armed conflict}, and wickedness will not deliver its possessor.
9 I have seen all this and have applied my heart {libbi: inner will} to every work that is done under the sun—a time when one man rules over another to his own harm {lera: bringing adversity}.
10 And so I saw wicked men {reshaim: evildoers} buried; they had come and gone from a holy place, and they were forgotten in the city where they had acted thus. This also is vanity {havel: futility}.
11 Because sentence {pitgam: official decree} for an evil deed is not executed swiftly, therefore the hearts of the sons of man are fully set within them to do evil {ra: moral wrongdoing}.
12 Even though a sinner commits evil a hundred times and his life is prolonged, I surely know that it will be well for those who fear God {ha-Elohim: Righteous Judge}, who stand in awe before Him {milfanav: in His presence}.
13 And it will not go well for the wicked, and he will not lengthen days {yaarikh: extend life span} like the shadow, because he does not fear before God {Elohim: Supreme Judge}.
14 There is a vanity {hevel: fleeting emptiness} that is done upon the earth: there are righteous ones {tsaddikim: just individuals} to whom it happens according to the deed of the wicked, and wicked ones to whom it happens according to the deed of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.
15 So I deemed gladness {simchah: inner gladness}, because for a person under the sun there is nothing better than to eat, to drink, and to rejoice; this will sustain him in his toil through the days of his life that God {Elohim, Life Giver} has given him under the sun.
16 When I set my heart to know wisdom and to observe the task {inyan: undertaking on earth} taking place on earth, I saw that by day and by night a man’s eyes find no sleep {shenah: state of rest}.
17 Then I beheld every task of God {Elohim, Unsearchable Actor}; no person can uncover what is accomplished beneath the sun. However diligently one labors in pursuit, the work eludes discovery; even the wise man {hakham: learned sage} who claims understanding cannot find it.