The Preacher opens with a question: who is like the wise man, and who knows the interpretation of a thing? A person's wisdom makes their face shine, and changes the very boldness of their expression.
He gives counsel about living under authority. Keep the king's commandment, and do so in regard of the oath of God. Don't be hasty to leave the king's presence, and do not stand in an evil thing, because the king does whatever pleases him. Where the word of a king is, there is power, and no one can question him. Whoever keeps the commandment will not experience harm, and the wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment, because every purpose has its proper time and judgment, and man's misery is great upon him because he does not know what is coming or when.
No man has power over the spirit to hold it, and no one has power in the day of death. There is no discharge in that war. And wickedness will not deliver those who have given themselves to it. The Preacher has observed all this, and notes that there are times when one man rules over another to his own hurt.
He saw the wicked buried: men who had come and gone from the holy place, received honorable burial, and then forgotten in the city where they had done their evil. This is also vanity. Because sentence against evil is not executed quickly, the hearts of men are fully set on doing evil. A sinner may do evil a hundred times and still have his days prolonged, and yet the Preacher makes a firm declaration: he knows that it will go well with those who fear God. But it will not go well with the wicked; his days, which are like a shadow, will not be prolonged, because he does not fear God.
There is a vanity done on the earth: righteous men receive what the wicked deserve, and wicked men receive what the righteous deserve. This too is vanity.
So the Preacher commends eating, drinking, and being merry, because there is nothing better for a man under the sun than this, and it will accompany him in his labor all the days God gives him.
When he applied himself to understanding all the business done on the earth, even losing sleep over it, he came to this: a man cannot find out the work God does under the sun. However hard he labors, he will not find it. And even if a wise man thinks he knows, he will not be able to find it either.
