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What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?
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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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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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I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!
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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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I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
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I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.
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I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil.
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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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Toil Is Meaningless
So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
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I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.
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And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.
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So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.
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For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.
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What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?
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All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.
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That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
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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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All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.
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Oppression, Toil, Friendlessness
Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed— and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors— and they have no comforter.
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And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
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There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. “For whom am I toiling,” he asked, “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?” This too is meaningless— a miserable business!
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I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the youth, the king’s successor.
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There was no end to all the people who were before them. But those who came later were not pleased with the successor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
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Riches Are Meaningless
If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still.