King James Version (KJV)

Ecclesiastes 8:2-9:12

8:2I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God. 8:3Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. 8:4Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou? 8:5Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. 8:6Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him. 8:7For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be? 8:8There 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. 8:9All 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. 8:10And 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. 8:11Because 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. 8:12Though 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: 8:13But 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. 8:14There 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. 8:15Then 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. 8:16When 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:) 8:17Then 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 farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

9:1For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.9:2All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.9:3This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.9:4For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.9:5For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.9:6Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.9:7Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.9:8Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.9:9Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.9:10Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.9:11I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.9:12For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:13

2:17But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. 2:18Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us. 2:19For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? 2:20For ye are our glory and joy.

3:1Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone;3:2And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:3:3That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.3:4For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.3:5For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.3:6But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you:3:7Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith:3:8For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.3:9For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God;3:10Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?3:11Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.3:12And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:3:13To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.