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Ecclesiastes 1

The Futility of All Endeavor

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The words of the  aPreacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

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1 aVanity of vanities," says the Preacher, " 1Vanity of vanities! All is  2vanity."

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 aWhat advantage does man have in all his work Which he does under the sun?

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A generation goes and a generation comes, But the  aearth  1remains forever.

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Also,  athe sun rises and the sun sets; And  1hastening to its place it rises there again.

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 1 aBlowing toward the south, Then turning toward the north, The wind continues  2swirling along; And on its circular courses the wind returns.

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All the rivers  1flow into the sea, Yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers  1flow, There they  1flow again.

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All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it.  aThe eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing.

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 aThat which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.

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Is there anything of which one might say, "See this, it is new"? Already it has existed for ages Which were before us.

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There is  ano remembrance of  1earlier things; And also of the  2later things which will occur, There will be for them no remembrance Among those who will come  2later still.

The Futility of Wisdom

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I, the  aPreacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

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And I  aset my  1mind to seek and  bexplore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is  2a grievous  ctask which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.

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I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is  1 avanity and striving after wind.

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What is  acrooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted.

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I  1said to myself, "Behold, I have magnified and increased  awisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my  2mind has observed  3a wealth of wisdom and knowledge."

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And I  aset my  1mind to know wisdom and to  bknow madness and folly; I realized that this also is  cstriving after wind.

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Because  ain much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.



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(Produced: Sat Dec 22 11:23:35 2007)

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