No one has authority over the wind[a] to restrain it,(A) and there is no authority over the day of death;(B) there is no furlough in battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape. All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one man has authority over another to his harm.

10 In such circumstances, I saw the wicked buried. They came and went from the holy place,(C) and they were praised[b] in the city where they did so. This too is futile.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 8:8 Or life-breath
  2. Ecclesiastes 8:10 Some Hb mss, LXX, Aq, Theod, Sym; other Hb mss read forgotten

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