Ecclesiastes 7:15

¹³ Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?

¹⁴ In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.

All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.

¹⁶ Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?

¹⁷ Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?

Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: In my futile life I have seen both of these: A righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.
KJV: All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.
WEB: All this I have seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing.
ASV: All this have I seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth [his life] in his evil-doing.
DARBY: All [this] have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a righteous [man] that perisheth by his righteousness, and there is a wicked [man] that prolongeth [his days] by his wickedness.
BLB: All I have seen in the days of my vapor: There is a righteous one perishing in his righteousness, and there is a wicked one living long in his wickedness.

ÅB: Alt dette har jeg sett i mitt tomme liv: Mangen rettferdig går til grunne tross sin rettferdighet, og mangen ugudelig lever lenge tross sin ondskap.
OTB: I mitt flyktige liv har jeg sett begge deler: de rettferdige som går til grunne i sin rettferdighet, og de onde som lever lenge i sin ondskap.
B1930: Alt dette har jeg sett i mitt tomme liv: Mangen rettferdig går til grunne tross sin rettferdighet, og mangen ugudelig lever lenge tross sin ondskap.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Ecclesiastes 8:12–14
Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:
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Ecclesiastes 6:12
For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
Read in context
Psalms 73:3–13
For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
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Matthew 23:34–35
Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
Read in context
Ecclesiastes 9:1–2
For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.
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Ecclesiastes 2:23
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
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1 Kings 21:13
And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.
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Genesis 47:9
And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.
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