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Revised Standard Version |   | |
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| | Ecc 1:1 | The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
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| | Ecc 1:2 | Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
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| | Ecc 1:3 | What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
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| | Ecc 1:4 | A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains for ever.
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| | Ecc 1:5 | The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.
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| | Ecc 1:6 | The wind blows to the south, and goes round to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.
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| | Ecc 1:7 | All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.
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| | Ecc 1:8 | All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
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| | Ecc 1:9 | What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.
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| | Ecc 1:10 | Is there a thing of which it is said, "See, this is new"? It has been already, in the ages before us.
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| | Ecc 1:11 | There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to happen among those who come after.
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| | Ecc 1:12 | I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.
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| | Ecc 1:13 | And I applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to the sons of men to be busy with.
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| | Ecc 1:14 | I have seen everything that is done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
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| | Ecc 1:15 | What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be numbered.
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| | Ecc 1:16 | I said to myself, "I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge."
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| | Ecc 1:17 | And I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.
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| | Ecc 1:18 | For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
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