Ecclesiastes 7:15

¹²Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him. ¹³But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow, because he doesn’t fear God.

¹⁴There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

¹²For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

^34[+] Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, ³⁵that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.

³For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. ⁴For there are no struggles in their death, but their strength is firm. ⁵They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men. ⁶Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment. ⁷Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit. ⁸They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression. ⁹They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth. ¹⁰Therefore their people return to them, and they drink up waters of abundance. ¹¹They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” ¹²Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches. ¹³Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence,

¹For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them. ²All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn’t sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears an oath.

¹⁸The king said to Doeg, “Turn and attack the priests!” Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod.

¹⁹He struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword—both men and women, children and nursing babies, and cattle, donkeys, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.

⁹Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity, for that is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you labor under the sun.

²²“It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked. ²³If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent.

⁷“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power? ⁸Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes. ⁹Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. ¹⁰Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry. ¹¹They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance. ¹²They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe. ¹³They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.^14[+] They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways. ¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’

¹⁶Moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there.