3. Be not hasty to withdraw from the king; do not persist in an unpleasant situation, for he does whatever he pleases.
4. His word is sovereign, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
5. “Whoever observes a command knows no harm, and the wise heart knows times and judgments.”
6. Yes, there is a time and a judgment for everything. But it is a great evil for mortals
7. that they are ignorant of what is to come; for who will make known to them how it will be?
8. No one is master of the breath of life so as to retain it, and none has mastery of the day of death. There is no exemption in wartime, nor does wickedness deliver those who practice it.
9. All these things I saw and I applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun, while one person tyrannizes over another for harm.
10. Meanwhile I saw the wicked buried. They would come and go from the holy place. But those were forgotten in the city who had acted justly. This also is vanity.
11. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not promptly executed, the human heart is filled with the desire to commit evil—
12. because the sinner does evil a hundred times and survives. Though indeed I know that it shall be well with those who fear God, for their reverence toward him;
13. and that it shall not be well with the wicked, who shall not prolong their shadowy days, for their lack of reverence toward God.