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10 Use all your strength to do the work that you are doing. One day you will die and you will go into your grave. Then you will not have any work, or ideas, or knowledge or wisdom. So do your work well while you are alive.

11 I have seen another thing that happens here on the earth.

The runner who runs fastest does not always win the race.
The strongest soldiers do not always win the battle.
Very wise people do not always have food to eat.
Very clever people do not always become rich.
People who have learned many things are not always successful.
Yes, anything may happen to anyone at any time.
12 Nobody knows the time when trouble may come to them.
    A fish does not know when somebody will catch it in a net.
    A bird does not know when somebody will catch it in a trap.
In the same way, terrible trouble suddenly happens to people when they do not expect it.

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10 Whatever(A) your hand finds to do, do it with all your might,(B) for in the realm of the dead,(C) where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.(D)

11 I have seen something else under the sun:

The race is not to the swift
    or the battle to the strong,(E)
nor does food come to the wise(F)
    or wealth to the brilliant
    or favor to the learned;
but time and chance(G) happen to them all.(H)

12 Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:

As fish are caught in a cruel net,
    or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by evil times(I)
    that fall unexpectedly upon them.(J)

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