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the case of solitary individuals, without sons or brothers; yet there is no end to all their toil, and their eyes are never satisfied with riches. “For whom am I toiling,” they ask, “and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.(A)

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20 Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied,
    and human eyes are never satisfied.(A)

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16 for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world.

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20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’(A)

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13 I applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to humans to be busy with.(A)

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All things[a] are wearisome,
    more than one can express;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing
    or the ear filled with hearing.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 1.8 Or words

Social Injustice Denounced

Woe to those who join house to house,
    who add field to field,
until there is room for no one,
    and you are left to live alone
    in the midst of the land!(A)

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10 The lover of money will not be satisfied with money, nor the lover of wealth with gain. This also is vanity.(A)

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The Value of a Friend

Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up the other, but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?(A) 12 And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.

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    Surely everyone goes about like a shadow.
Surely for nothing they are in turmoil;
    they heap up and do not know who will gather.(A)

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18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”(A)

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28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.(A)

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Moreover, wealth[a] is treacherous;
    the arrogant do not endure.
They open their throats wide as Sheol;
    like Death they never have enough.
They gather all nations for themselves
    and collect all peoples as their own.(A)

The Woes of the Wicked

Shall not everyone taunt such people and, with mocking riddles, say about them,

“Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!”
    How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge?(B)
Will not your own creditors suddenly rise
    and those who make you tremble wake up?
    Then you will be plunder for them.
Because you have plundered many nations,
    all who survive of the peoples shall plunder you—
because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth,
    to cities and all who live in them.(C)

“Alas for you who get evil gain for your house,
    setting your nest on high
    to be safe from the reach of harm!”(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.5 Q mss: MT wine

Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely separate me from his people,”
and do not let the eunuch say,
    “I am just a dry tree.”(A)
For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
    who choose the things that please me
    and hold fast my covenant,(B)
I will give, in my house and within my walls,
    a monument and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that shall not be cut off.(C)

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Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread
    and your earnings for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
    and delight yourselves in rich food.(A)

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19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. Now shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”(A) 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot save himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?”(B)

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23 For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.(A)

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But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”[a](A) And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.”(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 15.2 Meaning of Heb uncertain