Yet no one knows what will happen(A) because who can tell him what will happen? No one has authority over the wind[a] to restrain it,(B) and there is no authority over the day of death;(C) there is no furlough in battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape. All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one man has authority over another to his harm.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 8:8 Or life-breath

For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.

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