Ecclesiastes 8:9 — Meaning and Application

For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be? {when...: or, how it shall be?}

{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}

All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: {there is} a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.

And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this {is} also vanity.

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.