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to them, enjoy pleasure; we shall say of laughter, It is mad; and of mirth, What doeth it?

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If we apply our hearts to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth, we shall perceive that this also is vexation of spirit: For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.

2 Neither can a man find out the work that is done

under the sun. Because, though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

3 Moreover of making many books there is no end: and much study is weariness to the flesh.

4 And how dieth the wise man? As the fool. For there is no remembrance of the wise man more than of the fool for ever.

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* If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, and his labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; who knoweth whether the man that shall be after him, unto whom he shall leave all his labour which he hath taken, shall be a wise man or a fool? Yet shall he have rule over all the labour wherein he hath laboured, and wherein he hath shewed himself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.

⚫ Wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness; yet is folly oftentimes set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place.

7 Wisdom is better than strength; nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.

1 Eccles. viii. 16. Eccles. i. 17, 18.

3 Eccles. xii. 12.

Eccles. ii. 21. 19. 18.

7 Eccles. ix. 16.

4 Eccles. ii. 16.

2 Eccles. iii. 17. 5 Eccles vi. 3.

6 Eccles. ii. 13. Eccles. x. 6.

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Again, I considered all travail, and every right work; that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

2 Labour not to be rich; for riches certainly make themselves wings, and fly away. Why then shouldst thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof faileth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth; so also shall the rich man fade away in his

ways.

3 Riches are not for ever; neither doth the crown endure to every generation.

4 When goods increase they are increased that eat them; and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?

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Sometimes riches are kept for the owners thereof to their hurt: for those riches perish by evil travail; and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath in his sickness.

• There is an evil common among men; namely, a man to whom God giveth riches, wealth, and honour; so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth; yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

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7 There is one who hath neither child nor brother yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do

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I labour and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity; yea, it is a sore travail.

1 There be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked. Again, there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous. This is also vanity.

2 Sometimes likewise it so happens that servants are seen upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.

3 For this is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all; and no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. All the labour of man is for the mouth; and yet the appetite is not filled. He that loveth silver is not satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance, with increase: for that which is wanting cannot be numbered.

The wandering of the desire. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

• Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain.

In the multitude of dreams, and many words, there are also divers vanities.

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Seeing then there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?

9 Man, whose breath is in his nostrils, wherein is he to be accounted of? As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked shall he return, to go as he came; and shall take nothing of his labour which he may carry away in his hand; in all points as he

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came, so shall he go and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?

1 He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them; his sons.come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

2 There is no remembrance of former things, neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come, with those that shall come after.

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The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun.

4 Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit; and though their way were folly, yet their posterity approve their sayings.

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Behold, is it not of the Lord that the people labour in the very fire, and weary themselves for very vanity? They weave the spider's web: their web shall not become garments: neither shall they cover themselves with their works. Wherefore turn not aside from following the Lord; for then shall you go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. For the creature was made subject to vanity.

'I would not live always, because my days are vanity. As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work; so longeth my soul for thee, O God, because thy lovingkindness is better than life.

1 Psal. xxxix. 6. Job xiv. 21. 2 Eccles. i. 11.

i. 9.
lix. 5, 6. 1 Sam. xii. 20, 21.
Psal. Ixiii. 1. 3.

4 Jer. xvi. 19. Psal. xlix. 13.

3 Eccles.

5 Hab. ii. 13. Isa.

Rom. viii. 20.

6 Job vii. 16. 2.

THE IGNORANCE OF MAN.

Vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt. He saith he will be wise, but it is far from him; for the thoughts of the wise are vain.

2 We are but of yesterday, and know nothing.

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We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness; we grope for the wall like the blind; we stumble at noon day as in the night.

4 The way of peace we know not, there is no judgment in our goings; we have made us crooked paths.

5 The way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Man's goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way? His heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.

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If any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

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Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. We know not what shall be on the morrow.

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Great men are not always wise, neither do the aged understand judgment.

9 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Their wisdom, and their knowledge, it hath perverted them: They are wearied in the multitude of their counsels.

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3 Isa. lix. 9, 10. Prov. xvi. 9.. iv. 14.

1 Cor. ii. 6.

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2 Job viii. 9. Prov. xx. 24.

7 Prov. xxvii. 1. James

8 Job xxxii. 9. 91 Cor. i. 20. ¶ Isa. xlvii. 10. 13.

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