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Ecclesiastes 9
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| 9:1
For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the
righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man
knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. |
"The righteous ... are in the hand of God."
Has there ever been a righteous person?
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| 9:2
All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to
the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that
sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the
sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. |
(9:2-3)
The same death comes to us all, the good and the bad alike.
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| 9:3
This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there
is one event unto 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. |
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| 9:4
For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living
dog is better than a dead lion. |
As long as we are alive there is hope. After
that there is nothing. "A live dog is better than a dead lion."
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| 9:5
For the living know that
they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more
a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. |
Dead people know nothing and receive no reward.
Is death final?
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| 9:6
Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished;
neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done
under the sun. |
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| 9:7
Go thy way, eat thy
bread with joy, and
drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. |
"Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and
drink thy wine with a merry heart."
Is it OK to drink alcohol?
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| 9:8
Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment. |
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| 9:9
Live joyfully with the
wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he
hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy
portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. |
"Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest."
Is marriage a good thing?
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| 9:10
Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with thy might;for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge,
nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. |
"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it
with thy might," because dead people don't work and they know nothing.
Is death final?
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| 9:11
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 favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth
to them all. |
(9:11-12)
Human life is subject to indifferent laws
and random events -- just like the lives of other animals.
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| 9:12
For man also knoweth
not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds
that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time,
when it falleth suddenly upon them. |
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| 9:13
This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me: |
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| 9:14
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: |
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| 9:15
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. |
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| 9:16
Then said I, Wisdom is
better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and
his words are not heard. |
(9:16-17)
Wisdom, though often ignored and despised,
is better than strength.
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| 9:17
The words of wise men
are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools. |
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| 9:18
Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.
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