¹Who is like the wise man? Who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed. ²Keep the king’s command, I say, because of your oath before God. ³Do not hasten to leave his presence, and do not persist in a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. ⁴For the king’s word is supreme, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?” ⁵Whoever keeps his command will come to no harm, and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure. ⁶For there is a right time and procedure to every purpose, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him. ⁷Since no one knows what will happen, who can tell him what is to come? ⁸As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it. ⁹All this I have seen, applying my mind to every deed that is done under the sun; there is a time when one man lords it over another to his own detriment.