Ecclesiastes 8:14

There is a futility that is done on the earth: There are righteous men who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked men who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.

Majority Standard Bible

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

13Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

15So I commended the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be merry. For this joy will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 8

Cross References

Job 1:22In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.

Job 21:7Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?

Job 24:21They prey on the barren and childless, and show no kindness to the widow.

Psalms 73:3For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Ecclesiastes 2:14The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also came to realize that one fate overcomes them both.

Ecclesiastes 4:8There is a man all alone, without even a son or brother. And though there is no end to his labor, his eyes are still not content with his wealth: “For whom do I toil and bereave my soul of enjoyment?” This too is futile—a miserable task.

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 8:10-14

The Evil of Oppressive Rulers. 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… Read the whole commentary →

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