41 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
41 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
# Chapter 1
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1. These are the words of the Teacher, King David's son, who ruled in Jerusalem.
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Everything Is Meaningless
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2. "Everything is meaningless," says the Teacher, "completely meaningless!"
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3. What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?
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4. Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes.
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5. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again.
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6. The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles.
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7. Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea.
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8. Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
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9. History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.
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10. Sometimes people say, "Here is something new!" But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new.
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11. We don't remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.
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The Teacher Speaks: The Futility of Wisdom
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12. I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem.
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13. I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven. I soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existence to the human race.
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14. I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless--like chasing the wind.
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15. What is wrong cannot be made right.
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What is missing cannot be recovered.
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16. I said to myself, "Look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them."
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17. So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind.
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18. The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief.
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To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.
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