Ecclesiastes 8:11 · World English Bible
Ecclesiastes 8:11 Meaning Because Sentence Against an Evil Work Is
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.
What does Ecclesiastes 8:11 mean?
A consequence a person believes in but has never felt changes almost nothing about what they do. Delay turns a certain consequence into a theory, and theories move no one.
From the Self-Help reading below.
Ecclesiastes 8:11 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Self-Help
SELF-HELP
Self-Help
A consequence a person believes in but has never felt changes almost nothing about what they do.
Delay turns a certain consequence into a theory, and theories move no one. Every act that costs nothing today adds evidence to a belief that it costs nothing at all; that belief sets a confident state, confidence removes the hesitation that once slowed the hand, and what started as a risk settles into a disposition where the question stops being asked.
Judgment is not absent in that interval, only unfelt, and the human heart counts unfelt as nonexistent. The price of that arithmetic is that the bill arrives whole, against a person who has built years of life on the assumption it never would.
Self-Help lensGo deeper in the app
Self-Help lens
Live Ecclesiastes 8:11 today
- Think of one small thing you keep doing because nothing bad has happened yet, the late nights, the unopened mail, the drinks, the way you drive. Write down what it will cost in five years, and keep the note.
- If you have been short with someone at home because they keep absorbing it, say something today. Do not wait for the day they stop absorbing it.
- When you are rushed and tempted to cut the corner, the quick reply you did not read, the number you did not check, slow down for sixty seconds. The bill for that corner will arrive with your name on it, just not today.
What am I counting as free because the bill has not come yet?
The same truth in other traditions
Hinduism · karma
An action carries its result whether or not the result arrives today. The long gap between the deed and the harvest fools only the one who is counting days.
Buddhism · Dhammapada
A small wrong feels harmless while its fruit is still unripe. The person sees the cost only when it is finally sitting in front of them.
Stoicism · Seneca
Punishment often follows a wrong at a distance, and that distance is the very thing that tempts people to repeat it.
Free · No account needed
Read all of Ecclesiastes 8 through 17 lenses
Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.
Get Lensightful on the App Store