\q2 and whatever has been done is what will be done.
\q1 There is nothing new under the sun.
\q1
\v 10 Is there anything about which it may be said,
\q2 'Look, this is new'?
\q1 Whatever exists has already existed for a long time,
\q2 during ages which came long before us.
\q1
\v 11 No one seems to remember the things that happened in ancient times,
\q2 and the things that happened much later
\q2 and that will happen in the future
\q1 will not likely be remembered either."
\s5
\v 12 I am the Teacher, and I have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.
\v 13 I applied my mind to study and to search out by wisdom everything that is done under heaven. That search is a burdensome task that God has given to the children of mankind to be busy with.
\v 16 I have spoken to my heart, saying, "Look, I have acquired greater wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My mind has seen great wisdom and knowledge."
\v 3 I explored in my heart how to gratify myself with wine. I let my mind guide me with wisdom although I was still holding on to folly. I wanted to find out what is good for the children of mankind to do under heaven during the days of their lives.
\v 6 I created pools of water to water a forest where trees were grown.
\s5
\v 7 I purchased male slaves and female slaves; I had slaves born in my palace. I also had large herds and flocks of livestock, much more than any king who ruled before me in Jerusalem.
\v 8 I also accumulated for myself silver and gold, the treasures of kings and provinces. I got singers, both male and female, and many concubines, the delight of the children of men. \f + \ft Many modern translations interpret the last part of this verse in different ways: \fqa and many concubines, and everything that pleases men \fqa* or \fqa and everything that pleases people \fqa* . \f*
\v 19 For who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will be master over everything under the sun that my labor and wisdom have built. This also is meaningless.
\v 20 So I began to give my heart to despair over all the labor that I had done under the sun.
\v 21 For there might be someone who works with wisdom, with knowledge, and skill, but he will leave everything he has to a man who has not made any of it. This also is meaningless—a great injustice.
\v 24 There is nothing better for a person than to simply eat and drink and find enjoyment in his labor. I saw that this truth comes from the hand of God.
\v 26 For to a person who pleases him, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy. However, to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and storing up so that he may give it away to someone who pleases God. This also is meaningless—like chasing the wind.
\v 9 What profit does the worker gain in his labor?
\v 10 I have seen the work that God has given to human beings to complete.
\s5
\v 11 God has made everything suitable for its own time. He has also placed eternity in their hearts. But mankind cannot understand the deeds that God has done, from their beginning all the way to their end.
\v 14 I know that whatever God does lasts forever. Nothing can be added to it or taken away, because it is God who has done it so that people will approach him with honor.
\q1 God makes human beings seek hidden things. \f + \ft Instead of \fqa God makes human beings seek hidden things \fqa* , other modern translations interpret this line in different ways. \f*
\v 19 For the fate of the children of mankind and the fate of animals is the same. The death of one is like the death of the other. The breath is the same for all of them. There is no advantage for mankind over the animals. Everything is meaningless.
\v 21 Who knows whether the spirit of mankind goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward into the earth? \f + \ft Some modern translations have \fqa Who knows the spirit of mankind, which goes upward, and the spirit of animals, which goes downward into the earth? \fqa* \f*
\v 22 So again I realized that there is nothing better for a person than to take pleasure in his work, for that is his assignment. Who can bring him back to see what happens after him?
\v 16 There is no end to all the people who want to obey the new king, but later many of them will no longer praise him. Surely this also is meaningless—like chasing the wind.
\v 1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not understand that they are doing what is wrong.
\v 4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay to do it, for God has no pleasure in fools. Do what you vow you will do.
\v 5 It is better not to make a vow than to make one that you do not carry out.
\s5
\v 6 Do not allow your mouth to cause your flesh to sin. Do not say to the priest's messenger, "That vow was a mistake." Why make God angry by vowing falsely, provoking God to destroy the work of your hands?
\v 8 When you see the poor being oppressed and robbed of just and right treatment in your province, do not be astonished as if no one knows, because there are people in power who watch those under them, and there are even higher ones over them.
\v 9 In addition, the produce of the land is for everyone, and the king himself takes produce from the fields.
\v 18 Look, what I have seen to be good and suitable is for a person to eat and drink and to find enjoyment in his labor as he labors under the sun during the days of this life that God has given him. For this is man's assignment.
\v 2 God might give riches, wealth, and honor to a man so that he lacks nothing that he desires for himself, but then God gives him no ability to enjoy it. Instead, someone else uses his things. This is meaningless and a terrible affliction.
\v 3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but if his heart is not satisfied with good and he is not buried, then I say that a baby that is born dead is better off than he is.
\v 10 Whatever has existed has already been given its name, and what mankind is like has already been known. So it has become useless to dispute with the one who is the mighty judge of all.
\q1 For the person who fears God will meet all his obligations. \f + \ft Instead of \fqa will meet all his obligations \fqa* , many modern translations have different interpretations of this difficult passage. \f*
\v 27 "Consider what I have discovered," says the Teacher. "I have been adding one discovery to another in order to find an explanation of reality.
\v 28 This is what I am still looking for, but I have not found it. I did find one righteous man among a thousand, but a woman among all those I did not find.
\v 8 No one has power over the wind to restrain it, \f + \ft Some scholars translate the Hebrew as: \fqa No one is ruler over the wind so as to stop the wind \fqa* . \f*
\v 9 I have realized all this; I have applied my heart to every kind of work that is done under the sun. There is a time when a person oppresses another person to that person's hurt. \f + \ft Some modern translations have \fqa to his own hurt \fqa* . \f*
\v 10 So I saw the wicked buried publicly. They were taken from the holy area and buried and were praised by people in the city where they had done their wicked deeds. This also is meaningless. \f + \ft Many modern translations have different interpretations of this difficult verse: \fqa I saw wicked people come and go into the holy place. They proudly spoke in the city about the things they had done. This also is meaningless \fqa* . Other modern translations have \fqa I saw wicked people come and go into the holy place. They were praised in the city for the things they had done. This also is meaningless \fqa* . \f*
\v 11 When a sentence against an evil crime is not executed quickly, it entices the hearts of human beings to do evil.
\s5
\v 12 Even though a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives a long time, yet I know that it will be better for those who respect God, for those who stand before him and show him respect.
\v 13 But it will not go well for a wicked man; his life will not be prolonged. His days are like a fleeting shadow because he does not honor God.
\v 14 There is something else meaningless that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the righteous deserve. I said this too is meaningless.
\v 15 So I recommend happiness, because a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat and drink and to be happy. It is happiness that will accompany him in his labor for all the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.
\s5
\v 16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to understand the work that is done on the earth, work often done without sleep for the eyes at night or in the day,
\v 17 then I considered all of God's deeds, and that man cannot understand the work that is done under the sun. No matter how much a man labors to find the answers, he will not find them. Even though a wise man might believe he knows, he really does not.
\v 1 So all of this I laid to my heart, to make it clear, and I concluded that the righteous and the wise, and all that they do, are in the hand of God, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits him.
\q2 the good, \f + \ft Some modern translations follow ancient translations which have \fqa the good and the bad \fqa* . In this way, they make the phrase complete. Translators may decide to imitate them. \f*
\v 3 There is an evil fate for everything that is done under the sun, the same event happens to them all. The hearts of human beings are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live. So after that they go to the dead.
\v 9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your reward in life for your difficult work that you labored in under the sun.
\v 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, work at it with your strength, because there is no work or explanation or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, where you are going.
\q2 nor how a baby's bones grow in the pregnant womb, \f + \ft Some modern translations have \fqa As you do not know the path of the spirit to the baby's bones in the pregnant womb \fqa* . \f*
\v 9 The Teacher was wise and he taught the people knowledge. He studied and contemplated and set in order many proverbs.
\s5
\v 10 The Teacher sought to write using vivid, upright words of truth.
\v 11 The words of wise people are like goads. Like nails driven deeply are the words of the masters in collections of their proverbs, which are taught by one shepherd.
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