10 For all can see that the wise die,(A)
    that the foolish and the senseless(B) also perish,
    leaving their wealth(C) to others.(D)

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20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool!(A) This very night your life will be demanded from you.(B) Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’(C)

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“Surely everyone goes around(A) like a mere phantom;(B)
    in vain they rush about,(C) heaping up wealth(D)
    without knowing whose it will finally be.(E)

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27 Just as people are destined to die once,(A) and after that to face judgment,(B)

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They are all senseless(A) and foolish;(B)
    they are taught by worthless wooden idols.(C)

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13 I have seen a grievous evil under the sun:(A)

wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners,
14     or wealth lost through some misfortune,
so that when they have children
    there is nothing left for them to inherit.
15 Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb,
    and as everyone comes, so they depart.(B)
They take nothing from their toil(C)
    that they can carry in their hands.(D)

16 This too is a grievous evil:

As everyone comes, so they depart,
    and what do they gain,
    since they toil for the wind?(E)

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Surely I am only a brute, not a man;
    I do not have human understanding.

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Take notice, you senseless ones(A) among the people;
    you fools, when will you become wise?

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22 I was senseless(A) and ignorant;
    I was a brute beast(B) before you.

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But godliness with contentment(A) is great gain.(B) For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.(C) But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.(D) Those who want to get rich(E) fall into temptation and a trap(F) and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money(G) is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith(H) and pierced themselves with many griefs.(I)

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Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man,(A) and death through sin,(B) and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned(C)

13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.(D) 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam,(E) who is a pattern of the one to come.(F)

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11 Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay
    are those who gain riches by unjust means.
When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them,
    and in the end they will prove to be fools.(A)

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A Common Destiny for All

So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.(A) All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad,[a] the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

As it is with the good,
    so with the sinful;
as it is with those who take oaths,
    so with those who are afraid to take them.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 9:2 Septuagint (Aquila), Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew does not have and the bad.

26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom,(A) knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth(B) to hand it over to the one who pleases God.(C) This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

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16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;(A)
    the days have already come when both have been forgotten.(B)
Like the fool, the wise too must die!(C)

Toil Is Meaningless

17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.(D) 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.(E) 19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish?(F) Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. 21 For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.

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12 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
    but whoever hates correction is stupid.(A)

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Wealth(A) is worthless in the day of wrath,(B)
    but righteousness delivers from death.(C)

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Senseless people(A) do not know,
    fools do not understand,
that though the wicked spring up like grass
    and all evildoers flourish,
    they will be destroyed forever.(B)

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17 for they will take nothing(A) with them when they die,
    their splendor will not descend with them.(B)

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14 By your hand save me from such people, Lord,
    from those of this world(A) whose reward is in this life.(B)
May what you have stored up for the wicked fill their bellies;
    may their children gorge themselves on it,
    and may there be leftovers(C) for their little ones.

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