I said in my heart, 'The righteous and the wicked doth God judge, for a time is to every matter and for every work there.'

The whole I have considered in the days of my vanity. There is a righteous one perishing in his righteousness, and there is a wrong-doer prolonging himself in his wrong.

Be not over-righteous, nor show thyself too wise, why art thou desolate?

Because there is not a righteous man on earth that doth good and sinneth not.

There is a vanity that hath been done upon the earth, that there are righteous ones unto whom it is coming according to the work of the wicked, and there are wicked ones unto whom it is coming according to the work of the righteous. I have said that this also is vanity.

But all this I have laid unto my heart, so as to clear up the whole of this, that the righteous and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God, neither love nor hatred doth man know, the whole is before them.

The whole is as to the whole; one event is to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean, and to him who is sacrificing, and to him who is not sacrificing; as is the good, so is the sinner, he who is swearing as he who is fearing an oath.