See in Reader
81 lines
3.2 KiB
Plaintext
81 lines
3.2 KiB
Plaintext
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\s5
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\c 4
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\p
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\v 1 I thought some more about all the suffering that people are made to experience on the earth.
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\q1 I thought about the tears of people who were oppressed
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\q2 and who had no one to comfort them.
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\q1 Those who oppress them have power,
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\q2 and there is no one able to comfort the oppressed.
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 2 So I thought that those who are already dead are more fortunate
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\q2 than those who are still alive.
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\q1
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\v 3 And those who have not yet been born
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\q2 are even more fortunate than those two kinds of people,
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\q1 because those who have not been born have not seen all the evil things that are done on the earth.
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\s5
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\p
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\v 4 I also thought about all the hard work that people do and the things they are able to accomplish. And I thought about how someone who works hard sometimes makes his neighbor jealous. I decided that this also is something that is not accomplishing anything useful. It is like trying to control the wind.
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 5 Foolish people refuse to work.
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\q2 They sit idly with their hands folded and do not work.
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\q2 So they ruin themselves.
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\q1
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\v 6 So some say, "It is better to be content with working quietly for a little bit of money,
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\q2 than to work anxiously and try to get a lot of money,
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\q2 which is as useless as trying to control the wind."
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\s5
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\p
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\v 7 I thought about something else that happens on the earth that seems useless.
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\q1
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\v 8 There are people who live alone;
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\q2 they do not have a family nor even children or any brothers or sisters living with them.
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\q1 Every day they work very hard without stopping; they make a lot of money,
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\q2 but they are never satisfied with the things that they get.
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\q1 They ask themselves,
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\q2 "Why am I working so hard; whom am I actually helping?
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\q1 Why am I not doing things that I would enjoy doing?
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\q2 What I have been doing seems useless." This is very bad.
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 9 Having someone work with you is better than being by yourself all the time.
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\q2 If you have a friend, he can help you to do your work.
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\q1
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\v 10 If you fall down, he can help you get up again.
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\q2 But if you fall down when you are alone, you will have trouble,
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\q2 because there is no one to help you stand up.
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\q1
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\v 11 Similarly, if two people lie down together,
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\q2 they can help each other to remain warm.
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\q But someone who sleeps alone will certainly not be warm.
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 12 Someone who is alone can easily be attacked and defeated by another person,
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\q2 but two people can help each other and resist someone who attacks them.
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\q1 Three people can defend themselves even more easily,
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\q2 like a rope that is made from three cords is harder to break than a rope made from two cords.
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\s5
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\p
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\v 13 A young man who is poor but wise is a better person than a foolish old king who refuses to pay attention when people try to give him good advice.
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\v 14 It is possible for a young man like that to succeed and some day become king, even if his parents were poor or even if he was in prison in the past.
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\s5
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\v 15 But then some other young man becomes king, and everyone starts to support him.
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\v 16 Large crowds of people crowd around him. But after a few years, they will be tired of him, too. So it is all senseless, like trying to control the wind.
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