Passage

Ecclesiastes 8.6

Book: Ecclesiastes · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

4. For the king's word hath power; and who may say unto him, What doest thou? 5. Whoso keepeth the commandment shall know no evil thing; and a wise man's heart discerneth time and judgment:

6. for to every purpose there is a time and judgment; because the misery of man is great upon him:

for he knoweth not that which shall be; for who can tell him how it shall be? 8. There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power over the day of death; and there is no discharge in war: neither shall wickedness deliver him that is given to it. (Ecclesiastes 8:4-8, ASV)

WEB

4. for the king’s word is supreme. Who can say to him, “What are you doing?” 5. Whoever keeps the commandment shall not come to harm, and his wise heart will know the time and procedure.

6. For there is a time and procedure for every purpose, although the misery of man is heavy on him.

For he doesn’t know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be? 8. There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it. (Ecclesiastes 8:4-8, WEB)

KJV

4. Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou? 5. Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. ^{shall: Heb. shall know}

6. Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.

For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be? ^{when: or, how it shall be?} 8. There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it. ^{discharge: or, casting off weapons} (Ecclesiastes 8:4-8, KJV)

YLT

4. Where the word of a king [is] power [is], and who saith to him, 'What dost thou?' 5. Whoso is keeping a command knoweth no evil thing, and time and judgment the heart of the wise knoweth.

6. For to every delight there is a time and a judgment, for the misfortune of man is great upon him.

For he knoweth not that which shall be, for when it shall be who declareth to him? 8. There is no man ruling over the spirit to restrain the spirit, and there is no authority over the day of death, and there is no discharge in battle, and wickedness delivereth not its possessors. (Ecclesiastes 8:4-8, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Qohelet, "the Preacher" (Ecclesiastes 1:1), traditionally Solomon
Audience: readers of Israel's wisdom tradition weighing life "under the sun"
Location: Jerusalem, where the Preacher "was king over Israel" (Ecclesiastes 1:12)
Time period: traditionally c. 970-930 BC (Solomon's reign); many scholars date the book later, c. 450-200 BC

Theological reading

The verse is part of Qohelet's counsel about living under a king (Ecclesiastes 8:2-9). The wise man keeps the command, and "a wise man's heart discerneth time and judgment" (Ecclesiastes 8:5). Verse 6 gives the reason: "to every purpose there is a time and judgment." The pairing of time, et, and judgment, mishpat, recalls both the poem of times (Ecclesiastes 3:1) and the promise that "God will judge the righteous and the wicked" (Ecclesiastes 3:17).

The second clause, "the misery of man is great upon him," uses ra'ah, from the range of ra. The sense is trouble or calamity, not moral evil. The following verse explains it: man "knoweth not that which shall be; for who can tell him how it shall be?" (Ecclesiastes 8:7). His trouble is that he cannot see the time and judgment that are surely coming.

The codex cites the verse in Isaiah 45.7 I Create Evil as another place where ra means calamity. Its own lesson is patience and discernment: there is a right time and a final reckoning even when neither can yet be seen.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H4941 - mishpat, mishpat, Strong's H4941
H0120 - adam, adam, Strong's H0120
H7451 - ra, ra, Strong's H7451

Quoted in

Concepts:

Isaiah 45.7 I Create Evil

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.