Ecclesiastes 3:16

Not only from the persons that sat in judgment, but even in the places where judgment was, in pretence, administered, and righteousness was expected, there was iniquity; men met with the greatest wrongs in those courts to which they fled for justice.

Here a difficulty is suggested. If God "requires" events to move in their perpetual cycle, why are the wicked allowed to deal unrighteously in the place where injustice ought least of all to be; namely, "the place of judgment" (Jer 12:1)?

The plate of judgment, that wickedness was there - The abuse of power, and the perversion of judgment, have been justly complained of in every age of the world. The following paraphrase is good: - “But what enjoyment can our labors yield, When e’en the remedy prescribed by heaven To cure disorders proves our deadliest bane? When God’s vicegerents, destined to protect The weak from insolence of power, to guard Their lives and fortunes, impious robbers turn?

That great anomaly in the moral government of this world, the seemingly unequal distribution of rewards and punishments, will be rectified by God, who has future times and events under His control Ecc 3:16-17. As for people, they are placed by God, who is their teacher, in a humble condition, even on a level with inferior animals, by death, that great instance of their subjection to vanity Ecc 3:18-19, which reduces to its original form all that was made of the dust of the ground Ecc 3:20. And though the destinies of man and beast are different, yet in our present lack of knowledge as to God’s future dealing with our spirits Ecc 3:21, man finds his portion (see the Ecc 2:10 note) in such labor and such joy as God assigns to him in his lifetime Ecc 3:22. Ecc 3:16 I saw ... - Rather, I have seen (as in Ecc 3:10) under the sun the place etc. The place of judgment means the seat of the authorized judge. Compare “the place of the holy” Ecc 8:10. Ecc 3:17 A time there - i. e., a time with God. Ecc 3:18 literally, I said in my heart with regard to the sons of men, it is that God may prove them and show them that they are beasts, they themselves. “Showing” is the reading of the Septuagint and Syriac: the present Hebrew text reads “seeing.” The meaning is that the long delay of God’s judgment Ecc 3:16-17 is calculated to show people that the brevity of their life renders them incapable of following out and understanding His distributive justice. Ecc 3:19 That which befalleth the sons of men - literally, the event (happenstance) of the sons of men, i. e., what comes upon them from outside, by virtue of the ordinance of God. See the Ecc 2:14 note. Death in particular Ecc 3:2, Ecc 3:11 is a part of the “work that God doeth.” Ecc 3:21 The King James Version of this verse is the only rendering which the Hebrew text, as now pointed, allows. […]