10 But there is a time when a man ruleth over men to their hurt.
Thus I have seen wicked men buried,
And come again;
And those who did right depart from the place of the holy,
And be forgotten in the city:
This also is vanity.
Ver. 10.: But the Preacher has also seen times when retributive justice did not overtake the oppressors, when they came again in the persons of children as wicked and tyrannical as themselves.
11 Because sentence against an evil deed is not executed forthwith,
The heart of the sons of men is set in them to do evil.
Ver. 11.: Because sentence, etc. "God does not always pay on Saturdays," says an old Italian proverb.
12 Though a sinner do evil a hundred years,
And groweth old therein,
Yet I know that it shall be well with those who fear God,
Who truly fear before Him;
13 And it shall not be well with the wicked,
But, like a shadow, he shall not prolong his days,
Because he doth not fear before God.
Therefore the Preacher condemns this View of Human Life.
14 Nevertheless, this vanity doth happen on the earth,
That there are righteous men who have a wage like that of the wicked,
And there are wicked men who have a wage like that of the righteous:
This too, I said, is vanity.
15 And I commended mirth,
Because there is nothing better for man under the sun
Than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry;
For this will go with him to his work
Through the days of his life,
Which God giveth him under the sun.
Ver. 15.: "And this will go with him:" viz. this clear enjoying temper, than which, as yet, the Preacher has found "nothing better."