What Does Ecclesiastes 8:3 Mean in the King James?
Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse places alarmed flight beside remaining fixed in harm, then names the force both responses meet: a will that acts.
THE MEANING
You are in the presence of someone whose desire can become action. The verse names two exposed responses: fleeing in alarm and remaining fixed in a harmful matter. What he wants is joined directly to what he does.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a panic exit or stubborn position can, by itself, put you beyond another person’s reach.
THE ROOT
תִּבָּהֵל
tibbahel
GROWS FROM
בהל
b-h-l
To be alarmed or dismayed; to hurry in agitation.
“hasty” in this verse is tibbahel. The Hebrew word can carry alarm as well as speed, so this is more than a warning about moving too quickly: it names a departure driven by dismay. Beside the warning not to stand in a harmful matter, it sets panic flight against fixed persistence.
ALSO GROWS
bahal: To be alarmed, dismayed, or hurried.
בָּהַל
This verb shows that haste can carry inner alarm, not just quick movement.
behalah: Terror or sudden alarm.
בְּהָלָה
This branch makes the pressure behind an alarmed departure visible.
יַחְפֹּץ
yachpotz
GROWS FROM
חפץ
ḥ-p-ṣ
To desire, delight in, or take pleasure in.
What ‘pleaseth’ him is what he desires or delights in, and the verse joins that desire directly to action. The same desire-and-doing pattern appears in Psalm 115:3, where the subject is God.
ALSO GROWS
chephets: Desire, pleasure, delight; also a matter or thing.
חֵפֶץ
The noun shows how the root can name both what is wanted and the matter at hand.
chafets: Desiring or taking pleasure in.
חָפֵץ
This form keeps the verse’s focus on active desire, not merely approval.
THE PATTERN
When another person can shape the outcome, how a tense exchange unfolds can change how severe its consequences become.
If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.THE THREAD
But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.Ecclesiastes uses חָפֵץ (chafets, ‘desire’ or ‘delight’) in its claim about a ruler; Psalm 115:3 places the same desire-and-doing formula in God’s hands. The repeated language opens the verse as a statement about power, not merely a ruler’s private preference.
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