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New International Version |   | |
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| | Ecc 1:1 | The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
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| | Ecc 1:2 | "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
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| | Ecc 1:3 | What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
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| | Ecc 1:4 | Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
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| | Ecc 1:5 | The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
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| | Ecc 1:6 | The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
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| | Ecc 1:7 | All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
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| | Ecc 1:8 | All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
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| | Ecc 1:9 | What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
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| | Ecc 1:10 | Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
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| | Ecc 1:11 | There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.
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| | Ecc 1:12 | I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
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| | Ecc 1:13 | I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men!
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| | Ecc 1:14 | I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
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| | Ecc 1:15 | What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.
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| | Ecc 1:16 | I thought to myself, "Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge."
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| | Ecc 1:17 | Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
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| | Ecc 1:18 | For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
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