Ecclesiastes 8:10

So I saw the wicked buried publicly. They were taken from the holy area and buried and were praised by people in the city where they had done their wicked deeds. This also is uselessness. + 8:10 Some modern versions have other interpretations of this difficult verse: I saw wicked people come and go into the holy place. They proudly spoke in the city about the things they had done. This also is uselessness . Other versions have I saw wicked people come and go into the holy place. They were praised in the city for the things they had done. This also is uselessness .

Unlocked Literal Bible

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

9I have realized all this; I have applied my heart to every kind of work that is done under the sun. There is a time when a person oppresses another person to that person's hurt. + 8:9 Some modern versions have to his own hurt . The Hebrew passage can be interpreted either way.

11When a sentence against an evil crime is not executed quickly, it entices the hearts of human beings to do evil.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 8

Cross References

Job 21:18How often is it that they become like stubble before the wind 1 or like chaff that the storm carries away? 1

Psalms 31:12I am forgotten as a dead man whom no one thinks about. 1 I am like a broken pot. 1

Proverbs 10:7The righteous person makes those who remember him happy, 1 but the name of the wicked will rot away. 1

Ecclesiastes 2:16For the wise man, like the fool, is not remembered for very long. 2 In the days to come everything will have been long forgotten. 1 The wise man dies just like the fool dies.

Jeremiah 17:13Yahweh is the hope of Israel. All who abandon you will be put to shame; those in the land who turn away from you will be written in the earth, 1 for they have forsaken Yahweh, the fountain of living waters. 1

Acts 6:13They brought false witnesses, who said, “This man does not stop speaking words against this holy place and the law.

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 →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Ecclesiastes 8:10