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Everything Is Meaningless
The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
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“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
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Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
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Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless
Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?
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A Time for Everything
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
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He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
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I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.
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I said to myself, “God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.”
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Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless.
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Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands.
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This too is a grievous evil: As everyone comes, so they depart, and what do they gain, since they toil for the wind?
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Everyone’s toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied.
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It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.
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Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you—
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For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery.
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All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt.
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This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.
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Even as fools walk along the road, they lack sense and show everyone how stupid they are.
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A feast is made for laughter, wine makes life merry, and money is the answer for everything.
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Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird in the sky may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say.
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However many years anyone may live, let them enjoy them all. But let them remember the days of darkness, for there will be many. Everything to come is meaningless.
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“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless!”
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For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
