The Power of the King
Counsel on how to navigate the court of a king whose word is supreme. And then the deepest challenge to the moral order: the wicked who are buried with honor, the righteous who are treated as if they had done evil. The heart is set to do evil because sentence against evil is not executed speedily.
Summary
Ecclesiastes 8 opens with a reflection on wisdom and the power of the king: keep the king's command, and because of God's oath, be not hasty to go from his presence. Stand not in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. For there is a time and a way for everything, although man's trouble lies heavy on him.
The chapter then confronts the failure of the moral order directly. There are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is hevel. And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.
The chapter closes with the limits of wisdom: however much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out. Qoheleth has seen all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. No matter how much man toils in seeking, he will not find it out. Even if a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.
- Ecclesiastes 1The great thesis.
- Ecclesiastes 2Pleasure, works, wealth — all tried, all hevel.
- Ecclesiastes 3The seasons poem.
- Ecclesiastes 4Oppression with no comforter.
- Ecclesiastes 5How to approach God.
- Ecclesiastes 6Everything given but the power to enjoy it.
- Ecclesiastes 7The day of death better than the day of birth.
- Ecclesiastes 8Navigate the king’s court.
- Ecclesiastes 9One fate for all: righteous, wicked, clean, unclean.
- Ecclesiastes 10Dead flies ruin the perfumer’s ointment.
- Ecclesiastes 11Cast your bread on the waters.
- Ecclesiastes 12The allegory of old age.