Ecclesiastes:9

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* For all this I laid to my heart , even to explore all this , that the righteous , and the wise , and their works , are in the hand of God . No man understands , either love or hatred . All is before them . * All things come alike to all . There is one event to the righteous man and to the wicked man , to the good man and to the clean man and to the unclean man , to him who sacrifices and to him who does not sacrifice , as is the good man , * This is an evil in all that is done under the sun , that there is one event to all . Yea also , the heart of the sons of men is full of evil , and madness is in their heart while they live , and after that [they go ] to the dead . * Because to him who is joined with all the living there is hope , for a living dog is better than a dead lion . * For the living know that they shall die , but the dead know not anything , nor have they any more a reward , for the memory of them is forgotten . * As well their love , as their hatred and their envy , has perished long ago , nor have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun . * Go thy way , eat thy bread with joy , and drink thy wine with a merry heart , for God has already accepted thy works . * Let thy garments be always white , and let not thy head lack oil . * Live joyfully with the wife whom thou love all the days of thy life of vanity , which he has given thee under the sun , all thy days of vanity . For that is thy portion in life , and in thy labor in which thou labor under the sun . * Whatever thy hand finds to do , do with thy might , for there is no work , nor device , nor knowledge , nor wisdom , in Sheol , where thou go . * I returned , and saw under the sun , that the race is not to the swift , nor the battle to the strong , neither yet bread to the wise , nor yet riches to men of understanding , nor yet favor to men of skill , but time and chance happens t * For man also does not know his time . As the fishes that are taken in an evil net , and as the birds that are caught in the snare , even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falls suddenly upon them . * I have also seen wisdom under the sun this way , and it seemed great to me : * There was a little city , and few men within it . And there came a great king against it , and besieged it , and built great bulwarks against it . * Now there was found in it a poor wise man . And he by his wisdom delivered the city , yet no man remembered that same poor man . * Then I said , Wisdom is better than strength . Nevertheless the poor man 's wisdom is despised , and his words are not heard . * The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the cry of him who rules among fools . * Wisdom is better than weapons of war , but one sinner destroys much good .

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