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)

Read full chapter

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)

Read full chapter

“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)

Read full chapter

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

Read full chapter

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

Read full chapter

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)

Read full chapter

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

Read full chapter

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

Read full chapter

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

Read full chapter

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)

Read full chapter

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)

Read full chapter

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)

Read full chapter

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)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

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

Bible Gateway Recommends