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Fall Asleep Listening to Ecclesiastes Bedtime Scripture for Deep Sleep [Holy Bible Audio] - Abide Meditation App · Abide Meditation App

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  Speaker 1: Abide meditation has everything you need for a peaceful night's sleep.
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  Speaker 1: Download a Bide from the app store today. Ecclesiastes one
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: the words of the teacher, son of David King and Jerusalem. Meaningless, meaningless,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: says the teacher, utterly meaningless. Everything is meaningless. What do
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: people gain from all their labors at which they toil?
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun sets
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  Speaker 1: and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: to the south and turns to the north. Round and
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  Speaker 1: round it goes, ever, returning on its course. All streams
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  Speaker 1: flow into the sea, Yet the sea is never full
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  Speaker 1: to the place the streams come from. There they return again.
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  Speaker 1: All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The
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  Speaker 1: eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear it's
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  Speaker 1: fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: has been done will be done again. There is nothing
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  Speaker 1: new under the sun. Is there anything of which one
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  Speaker 1: can say, Look, this is something new. It was here
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  Speaker 1: already long ago. It was here before our time. No
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  Speaker 1: one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to
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  Speaker 1: come will not be remembered by those who follow them. I,
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  Speaker 1: the teacher, was king over Israel and Jerusalem. I applied
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  Speaker 1: my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all
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  Speaker 1: that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden
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  Speaker 1: God has laid on mankind. I have seen all the
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  Speaker 1: things that are done under the sun. All of them
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  Speaker 1: are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. What is crooked
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  Speaker 1: cannot be straightened, what is lacking cannot be counted. I
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  Speaker 1: said to myself, Look, I have increased in wisdom more
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  Speaker 1: than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me. I
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  Speaker 1: have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge. Then I applied
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  Speaker 1: myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness
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  Speaker 1: and folly. But I learned that this too is a
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  Speaker 1: chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow.
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  Speaker 1: The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes too, I said
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  Speaker 1: to myself, come now, I will test you with pleasure
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  Speaker 1: to find out what is good. But that also proved
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  Speaker 1: to be meaningless. Laughter, I said, is madness? And what
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  Speaker 1: does pleasure accomplish. I tried cheering myself with wine and
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  Speaker 1: embracing folly, my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to see what was good for people to do
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  Speaker 1: under the heavens during the few days of their lives.
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  Speaker 1: I undertook great projects. I built houses for myself and
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  Speaker 1: planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks, and planted all
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  Speaker 1: kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to
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  Speaker 1: water groves of flourish trees. I bought male and female slaves,
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  Speaker 1: and had other slaves who were born in my house.
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  Speaker 1: I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in
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  Speaker 1: Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself,
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  Speaker 1: and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male
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  Speaker 1: and female singers and a harem, as well the delights
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  Speaker 1: of a man's heart. I became greater by far than
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  Speaker 1: anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this, my wisdom
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  Speaker 1: stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired.
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  Speaker 1: I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight
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  Speaker 1: in all my labor, and this was the reward for
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  Speaker 1: all my toil. Yet, when I surveyed all that my
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  Speaker 1: hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve,
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  Speaker 1: everything was meaningless, A chasing after the wind. Nothing was
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  Speaker 1: gained under the sun. Then I turned my thoughts to
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can
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  Speaker 1: the king's successor do than what has already been done.
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  Speaker 1: I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as
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  Speaker 1: light is better than darkness. The wise have eyes in
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  Speaker 1: their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness. But
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  Speaker 1: I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.
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  Speaker 1: Then I said to myself, the fate of the fool
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  Speaker 1: will overtake me. Also, What then do I gain by
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  Speaker 1: being wise? I said to myself, this too is meaningless,
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  Speaker 1: for the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered.
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  Speaker 1: The days have already come when both have been forgotten.
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  Speaker 1: Like the fool, the wise too must die. So I
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  Speaker 1: hated life because the work that has done under the
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  Speaker 1: sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless,
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  Speaker 1: a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things
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  Speaker 1: I had toiled for under the sun, because I must
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  Speaker 1: leave them to the one who comes after me, and
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  Speaker 1: who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish.
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  Speaker 1: Yet they will have control over all the fruit of
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  Speaker 1: my toil, into which I have poured my effort and
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  Speaker 1: skill under the sun, This too is meaningless. So my
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  Speaker 1: heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under
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  Speaker 1: the sun. For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: and skill, and then they must leave all they own
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  Speaker 1: to another who is not toiled for it. This too
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  Speaker 1: is meaningless and a great misfortune. What do people get
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  Speaker 1: for all the toil and anxious striving with which they
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  Speaker 1: labor under the sun all their days, their work is
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  Speaker 1: grief and pain. Even at night their minds do not rest.
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  Speaker 1: This too is meaningless. A person can do nothing better
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  Speaker 1: than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their
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  Speaker 1: own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand
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  Speaker 1: of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment.
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  Speaker 1: To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: and happiness. But to the sinner he gives the task
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  Speaker 1: of gathering and storing up wealth, to hand it over
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  Speaker 1: to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless.
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  Speaker 1: A chasing after the wind Ecclesiastes three. There is a
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  Speaker 1: time for everything, and a season for every activity under
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  Speaker 1: the heavens, a time to be borne and a time
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  Speaker 1: to die, a time to plant, and a time to uproot,
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  Speaker 1: a time to kill and a time to heal, a
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  Speaker 1: time to tear down and a time to build. A
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  Speaker 1: time to weep and a time to laugh, a time
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  Speaker 1: to mourn and a time to dance. A time to
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  Speaker 1: scatter stones and a time to gather them. A time
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  Speaker 1: to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A
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  Speaker 1: time to search and a time to give up. A
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  Speaker 1: time to keep and a time to throw away, a
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  Speaker 1: time to tear and a time to mend. A time
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  Speaker 1: to be silent and a time to speak, a time
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  Speaker 1: to love and a time to hate, A time for
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  Speaker 1: war and a time for peace. What do workers get
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  Speaker 1: from their toil? I have seen the burden God has
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  Speaker 1: laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful
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  Speaker 1: in its time. He has also set eternity in the
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  Speaker 1: human heart. Yet no one can fathom what God has
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  Speaker 1: done from beginning to end. I know that there is
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  Speaker 1: nothing better for people than to be happy and to
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  Speaker 1: do good while they live. That each of them may
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  Speaker 1: eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil.
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  Speaker 1: This is a gift of God. I know that everything
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  Speaker 1: God does will endure forever. Nothing can be added to it.
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  Speaker 1: And nothing taken from it. God does it so that
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  Speaker 1: people will fear him. Whatever has already been and what
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  Speaker 1: will be has been before. And God will call the
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  Speaker 1: past to account. And we saw something else under the sun.
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  Speaker 1: In the place of judgment. Wickedness was there, In the
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  Speaker 1: place of justice, wickedness was there. I said to myself,
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  Speaker 1: God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked,
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  Speaker 1: for there will be a time for every activity, a
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  Speaker 1: time to judge every deed. I also said to myself,
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  Speaker 1: as for humans, God tests them so that they may
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  Speaker 1: see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate
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  Speaker 1: of human beings is like that of the animals. The
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  Speaker 1: same fate awaits them. Both. As one dies, so dies
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  Speaker 1: the other. All have the same breath. Humans have no
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  Speaker 1: advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the
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  Speaker 1: same place. All come from dust, and to dust, all return.
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  Speaker 1: Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if
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  Speaker 1: the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth.
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  Speaker 1: So I saw that there is nothing better for a
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  Speaker 1: person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot.
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  Speaker 1: For who can bring them to see what will happen
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  Speaker 1: after them? Ecclesiastes form again I looked and saw all
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  Speaker 1: the oppression that was taking place under the sun. I
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  Speaker 1: saw the tears of the oppressed, and they have no comforter.
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  Speaker 1: Power was on the side of their oppressors, and they
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  Speaker 1: have no comforter. And I declared that the dead, who
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  Speaker 1: had already died, are happier than the living who are
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  Speaker 1: still alive. But better than both is the one who
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  Speaker 1: has never been born, who has not seen the evil
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  Speaker 1: that is done under the sun. And I saw that
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  Speaker 1: all toil and all achievement spring from one person's in
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  Speaker 1: me of another. This too is meaningless, but chasing after
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  Speaker 1: the wind fools fold their hands and ruined themselves. Better
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  Speaker 1: one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and
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  Speaker 1: chasing after the wind. Again, I saw something meaningless under
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  Speaker 1: the sun. There was a man all alone. He had
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  Speaker 1: neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil,
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  Speaker 1: Yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. Who
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  Speaker 1: am I toiling? He asked? And why am I depriving
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  Speaker 1: myself of enjoyment? This too is meaningless, a miserable business.
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  Speaker 1: Two are better than one because they have a good
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  Speaker 1: return for their labor. If either of them falls down,
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  Speaker 1: one can help the other up, But pity anyone who
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  Speaker 1: falls and has no one to help them up. Also,
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  Speaker 1: if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But
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  Speaker 1: how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered,
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  Speaker 1: two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is
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  Speaker 1: not quickly broken. Better a poor but wise youth than
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  Speaker 1: an old but foolish king who no longer knows how
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  Speaker 1: to heat warning. The youth may have come from prison
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  Speaker 1: to the kingship, or he may have been born in
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  Speaker 1: poverty within his kingdom. I saw that all who lived
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  Speaker 1: and walked under the sun followed the youth the king's successor.
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  Speaker 1: There was no end to all the people who were
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  Speaker 1: before them, But those who came later were not pleased
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  Speaker 1: with the successor. This too, is meaningless, a chasing after
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  Speaker 1: the wind. Ecclesiastes five. Guard your steps when you go
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  Speaker 1: to the house of God. Go near to listen, rather
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  Speaker 1: than to offer the sacrifice of fools who do not
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  Speaker 1: know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with
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  Speaker 1: your mouth. Do not be hasty in your heart to
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  Speaker 1: utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you
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  Speaker 1: are on earth. So let your words be few. A
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  Speaker 1: dream comes when there are many cares, and many words
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  Speaker 1: mark the speech of a fool. When you make a
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  Speaker 1: vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He
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  Speaker 1: has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill your vow. It is
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  Speaker 1: better not to make a vow than to make one
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  Speaker 1: and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead
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  Speaker 1: you into sin. Do not protest to the temple messenger,
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  Speaker 1: my vow was a mistake. Why should God be angry
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  Speaker 1: at what you say and destroy the work of your hands.
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  Speaker 1: Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God.
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  Speaker 1: If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and
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  Speaker 1: justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things.
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  Speaker 1: For one official is eyed by a higher one, and
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  Speaker 1: over them both are others higher. Still, the increase from
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  Speaker 1: the land is taken by all. The king himself profits
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  Speaker 1: from the fields. Whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever
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  Speaker 1: loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too,
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  Speaker 1: is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them.
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  Speaker 1: And what benefit are they to the owners except to
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  Speaker 1: feast their eyes on them. The sleep of a laborer
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  Speaker 1: is sweet, whether they eat little or much. But as
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  Speaker 1: for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep. I
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  Speaker 1: have seen a grievous evil under the sun, wealth hoarded
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  Speaker 1: to the harm of its owners, or wealth lost through
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  Speaker 1: some misfortune, so that when they have children there is
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  Speaker 1: nothing left for them to inherit. Everyone comes naked from
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  Speaker 1: their mother's womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart.
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  Speaker 1: They will take nothing from their toil that they can
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  Speaker 1: carry in their hands. This, too is a grievous evil.
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  Speaker 1: As everyone comes, so they depart, And what do they gain?
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  Speaker 1: Since they toil for the wind all their days? They
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  Speaker 1: eat in darkness with great frustration, affliction, and anger. This
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  Speaker 1: is what I have observed to be good. That it
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  Speaker 1: is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink, and
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  Speaker 1: to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun
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  Speaker 1: during the few days of life God has given them,
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  Speaker 1: for this is their lot. Moreover, when God gives someone
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  Speaker 1: wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy, them to
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  Speaker 1: accept their lot and be happy in their toil. This
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  Speaker 1: is a gift of God. They seldom reflect on the
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  Speaker 1: days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with
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  Speaker 1: gladness of heart. Ecclesiastes six. I have seen another evil
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  Speaker 1: under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind. God
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  Speaker 1: gives some people wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they
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  Speaker 1: lack nothing in their heart's desire. But God does not
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  Speaker 1: grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy
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  Speaker 1: them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil. A man
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  Speaker 1: may have a hundred children and live many years, Yet,
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  Speaker 1: no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy
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  Speaker 1: his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say
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  Speaker 1: that a stillborn child is better off than he. It
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  Speaker 1: comes without meaning, It departs in darkness, and in darkness
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  Speaker 1: its name is shrouded. Though it never saw the sun
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  Speaker 1: or knew anything. It has more rest than does that man,
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  Speaker 1: even if he lives a thousand years twice over but
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  Speaker 1: fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to
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  Speaker 1: the same place. Everyone's toil is for their mouth, yet
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  Speaker 1: their appetite is never satisfied. What advantage have the wise
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  Speaker 1: over fools? What do the poor gain by knowing how
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  Speaker 1: to conduct themselves before others? Better what the eye sees
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  Speaker 1: than the roving of the appetite, This too is meaningless.
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  Speaker 1: A chasing after the wind. Whatever exists has already been named,
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  Speaker 1: and what humanity is has been known. No one can
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  Speaker 1: contend with someone who is stronger. The more the words,
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  Speaker 1: the less the meaning, And how does that profit any one?
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  Speaker 1: For who knows what is good for a person in life?
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  Speaker 1: During the few and meaningless days they pass through like
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  Speaker 1: a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under
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  Speaker 1: the sun after they are gone? Ecclesiastes seven. A good
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  Speaker 1: name is better than fine perfume, and the day of
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  Speaker 1: death better than the day of birth. It is better
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  Speaker 1: to go to a house of mourning than to a
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  Speaker 1: house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone.
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  Speaker 1: The living should take this to heart. Frustration is better
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  Speaker 1: than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.
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  Speaker 1: The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
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  Speaker 1: but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise
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  Speaker 1: person than to listen to the song of fools. Like
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  Speaker 1: the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the
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  Speaker 1: laughter of fools. This too, is meaningless. Extortion turns a
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  Speaker 1: wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
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  Speaker 1: The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
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  Speaker 1: and patience is better than pride. Do not be quickly
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  Speaker 1: provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap
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  Speaker 1: of fools. Do not say why were the old days
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  Speaker 1: better than these? For it is not wise to ask
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  Speaker 1: such questions. Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing
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  Speaker 1: and benefits those who see the sun. Wisdom is a shelter,
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  Speaker 1: as money is a shelter. But the advantage of knowledge
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: is this wisdom preserves those who have it. Consider what
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  Speaker 1: God has done. Who can straighten what He has made crooked?
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: When times are good, be happy. But when times are bad,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: consider this God has made the one as well as
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  Speaker 1: the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their
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  Speaker 1: future in this meaningless life of mine. I have seen
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  Speaker 1: both of these, the righteous perishing in their righteousness, and
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  Speaker 1: the wicked living long in their wickedness. Do not be
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: over righteous, neither be overwise. Why destroy yourself? Do not
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  Speaker 1: be over wicked, and do not be a fool. Why
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  Speaker 1: die before your time? It is good to grasp the
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  Speaker 1: one and not let go of the other. Whoever fears
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: God will avoid all extremes. Wisdom makes one person more
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: powerful than ten rulers in a city. Indeed, there is
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  Speaker 1: no one on earth who is righteous, no one who
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: does what is right, and never sins. Do not pay
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  Speaker 1: attention to every word people say. Or you may hear
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  Speaker 1: your servant cursing you, for you know in your heart
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  Speaker 1: that many times you yourself have cursed others. All this
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  Speaker 1: I tested by wisdom, and I said, I am determined
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  Speaker 1: to be wise, But this was beyond me. Whatever exists
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  Speaker 1: is far off, and most profound who can discover it?
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  Speaker 1: So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate, and
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: to search out wisdom and the scheme of things, and
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.
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  Speaker 1: I find more bitter than death. The woman who is
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  Speaker 1: a snare, whose heart is a trap, and whose hands
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  Speaker 1: or chains. The man who pleases God will escape her,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: but the sinner she will ensnare. Look says the teacher,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: this is what I have discovered, adding one thing to
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  Speaker 1: another to discover the scheme of things. While I was
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: still searching but not finding, I found one upright man
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  Speaker 1: among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them.
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  Speaker 1: All this only have I found God created mankind upright
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: but they have gone in search of many schemes. Ecclesiastes ate,
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  Speaker 1: who is like the wise who knows the explanation of things?
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: A person's wisdom brightens their face and changes its hard appearance.
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  Speaker 1: Obey the king's command, I say, because you took an
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: oath before God. Do not be in a hurry to
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: leave the king's presence. Do not stand up for a
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. Since
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: a king's word is supreme, who can say to him,
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  Speaker 1: what are you doing? Whoever obeys his command will come
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  Speaker 1: to no harm. And the wise heart will know the
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  Speaker 1: proper time and procedure, for there is a proper time
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  Speaker 1: and procedure for every matter. Though a person may be
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: weighed down by misery, since no one knows the future,
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  Speaker 1: who can tell some one else what is to come?
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: And no one has power over the wind to contain it.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: So no one has power over the time of their death.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: As no one is discharged in time of war, so
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: wickedness will not release those who practice it. All this
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: I saw as I applied my mind to everything done
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: under the sun. There is a time when a man
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: lords it over others to his own heart. Then too,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: I saw the wicked buried, those who used to come
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: and go from the Holy Place and receive praise in
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: the city where they did this. This too, is meaningless.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: people's hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong. Although
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: a long time, I know that it will go better
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: with those who fear God, who are reverent before him. Yet,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: because the wicked do not fear God, it will not
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: go well with them, and their days will not Lengthen,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: like a shadow, there is something else, meaningless that occurs
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: on earth. The righteous who get what the wicked deserve,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This, too,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: I say, is meaningless. So I commend the enjoyment of life,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: because there is nothing better for a person under the
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: joy will accompany them and their toil all the days
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: of the life God has given them under the sun.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: When I applied my mind to no wisdom and to
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: observe the labor that is done on earth, people getting
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: no sleep day or night, then I saw all that
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it. Ecclesiastes nine.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: So I reflected on all this and concluded that the
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: righteous and the wise and what they do are in
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: God's hands. But no one knows whether love or hate
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: awaits them. All share a common destiny, the righteous and
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: As it is with the good, so it is with
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: the sinful, as it is with those who take oaths,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: so with those who are afraid to take them. This
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: is the evil in everything that happens under the sun.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: The same destiny overtakes all the hearts of people. Moreover,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: are full of evil, and there is madness in their hearts.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: While they live, and afterward they join the dead. Anyone
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: who is among the living has hope. Even a live
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: dog is better off than a dead lion, for the
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: They have no further reward, And even their name is
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: for God. Their love, their hate, and their jealousy have
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: long since vanished. Never again will they have a part
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: in anything that happens under the sun. Go eat your
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: For God has already approved what you do. Always be
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: days of this meaningless life that God has given you
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: under the sun, all your meaningless days. For this is
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: your lot in life, and in your toilsome labor under
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: with all your might. For in the realm of the dead,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: where you are going, there is neither working, nor planning,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: nor knowledge nor wisdom. I have seen something else under
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: the sun. The race is not to the swift, or
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: the battle to the strong. Nor does food come to
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the wise, or wealth to the brilliant, or favor to
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the learned. But time and chance happened to them all. Moreover,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: no one knows when their hour will come. As fish
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: in a snare, so people are trapped by evil times
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: that fall unexpectedly upon them. I also saw under the
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me. There
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: was once a small city with only a few people
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: in it, and a powerful king came against it, surrounded it,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: and built huge siege works against it. Now there lived
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: in that city a man, poor but wise, and he
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: poor man. So I said, wisdom is better than strength.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: But the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: are no longer heeded. The quiet words of the wise
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: are more to be heated than the shouts of a
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: ruler of fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: But one sinner destroys much good. Ecclesiastes ten. As dead
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: outweighs wisdom and honor. The heart of the wise inclines
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: to the right, but the heart of the fool to
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: the left. Even as fools walk along the road, they
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: lack sense and show everyone how stupid they are. If
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: a ruler's anger rises against you, do not leave your post.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Calmness can lay great offenses to rest. There is an
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: evil I have seen under the sun, the sort of
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: error that arises from a ruler. Fools are put in
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: many high positions, while the rich occupy the low ones.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: foot like slaves. Whoever digs a pit may fall into it.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by snake.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Whoever quarry stones may be injured by them. Whoever splits
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: logs may be endangered by them. If the axe is
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: skill will bring success. If a snake bites before it
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: is charmed, the charmer receives no fee. Words from the
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: mouth of the wise are gracious, but fools are consumed
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: by their own lips. At the beginning, their words are folly.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: At the end, they are wicked. Madness, and fools multiply words.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: No one knows what is coming. Who can tell someone
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: else what will happen after them? The toils of fools
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: wearies them. They do not know the way to town.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Woe to the land whose king was a servant, and
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: whose princes feast in the morning. Blessed is the land
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: whose king is of noble birth. And whose princes eat
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: at a proper time for strength and not for drunkenness.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Through laziness, the rafters sag because of idle hands, the
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: house leaks, a feast is made for laughter. Wine makes
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: life merry, and money is the answer for everything. Do
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: not revile the king in your thoughts, or curse the
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: rich in your bedroom, because a bird in the sky
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: may carry your words, and a bird on the wing
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: may report what you say. Ecclesiastes eleven. Ship your grain
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: across the sea after many days you may receive a return.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Invest in seven ventures, yes in eight. You do not
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: know what disaster may come upon the land. If clouds
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: are full of water, they pour rain on the earth.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: in the place where it falls, there it will lie.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: Whoever watches the wind will not plant. Whoever looks at
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: the clouds will not reap. As you do not know
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: the path of the wind, or how the body is
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: work of God, the maker of all things. Sow your
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: seed in the morning and at evening. Let your hands
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: the sun. However many years any one may live, let
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: them enjoy them all, but let them remember the days
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: of darkness, for there will be many. Everything to come
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: is meaningless. You who are young, be happy while you
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: are young, and let your heart give you joy in
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: and whatever your eyes see. But know that for all
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: these things God will bring you into judgment. So then
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: of your body, For youth and vigor are meaningless. Ecclesiastes twelve.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: the days of trouble come, and the years approach, when
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: you will say I find no pleasure in them. Before
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: the sun and the light, and the moon and the
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: When the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: and those looking through the windows grow dim, when the
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: doors to the street are closed, and the sound of
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: grinding fades, When people rise up at the sound of birds,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: but all their songs grow faint. When people are afraid
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: of heights and of dangers in the streets, When the
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags itself along, and
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: desire was no longer stirred. Then people go to their
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: eternal home, and mourners go about the streets. Remember him
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bull
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: is broken, before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: returns to God who gave it meaningless. Meaningless, says the teacher,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: Everything is meaningless. Not only was the teacher wise, but
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: he also imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: searched out and set in order many proverbs. The teacher
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: searched to find just the right words, and what he
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: wrote was upright and true. The words of the wise
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: given by one shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: in addition to them, of making many books, there is
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: no end, and much study wearies the body now all
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: has been heard. Here is the conclusion of the matter.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: or evil. Ecclesiastes one the words of the Teacher, son
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: of David King and Jerusalem. Meaningless, meaningless, says the teacher,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: utterly meaningless. Every is meaningless. What do people gain from
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: all their labors at which they toil under the sun?
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Generations come and generations go, But the earth remains forever.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: The sun rises and the sun sets and hurries back
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: to where it rises. The wind blows to the south
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: and turns to the north. Round and round it goes, ever,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: yet the sea is never full to the place the
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: streams come from. There they return again. All things are wearisome,
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: more than one can say. The eye never has enough
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: of seeing, nor the ear it's fill of hearing. What
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: has been will be again, what has been done will
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: be done again. There is nothing new under the sun.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: Is is there anything of which one can say? Look,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: this is something new. It was here already long ago.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: It was here before our time, no one remembers the
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: former generations, and even those yet to come will not
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: be remembered by those who follow them. I, the Teacher,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: was king over Israel and Jerusalem. I applied my mind
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: to study and to explore by wisdom all that is
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: laid on mankind. I have seen all the things that
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: are done under the sun. All of them are meaningless,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: a chasing after the wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: what is lacking cannot be counted. I said to myself, look,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: ruled over Jerusalem before me. I have experienced much of
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: wisdom knowledge. Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: and also of madness and folly. But I learned that
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: this too is a chasing after the wind. For with
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: much wisdom comes much sorrow. The more knowledge, the more grief.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: Ecclesiastes too, I said to myself, come now, I will
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: test you with pleasure to find out what is good.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: But that also proved to be meaningless. Laughter, I said,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: is madness? And what does pleasure accomplish? I tried cheering
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: myself with wine and embracing folly, my mind still guiding
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: for people to do under the heavens during the few
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: days of their lives. I undertook great projects. I built
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: houses from my self and planted vineyards. I made gardens
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: and parks, and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: bought male and female slaves, and had other slaves who
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: were born in my house. I also owned more herds
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: and provinces. I acquired male and female singers and a harem,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: as well the delights of a man's heart. I became
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: all this, my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: nothing my eyes desired. I refused my heart no pleasure.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: My heart took delight in all my labor, and this
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: was the reward for all my toil. Yet, when I
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: surveyed all that my hands had done, and what I
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: had had toiled to achieve. Everything was meaningless, a chasing
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: after the wind. Nothing was gained under the sun. Then
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: and folly. What more can the king's successor do than
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: what has already been done. I saw that wisdom is
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: walks in the darkness. But I came to realize that
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: the same fate overtakes them both. Then I said to myself,
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: the fate of the fool will overtake me also. What
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: then do I gain by being wise? I said to myself,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: this too is meaningless, for the wise, like the fool,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: will not be long remembered. The days have already come
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: when both have been forgotten. Like the fool, the wise
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: too must die. So I hated life because the work
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: that has done under the sun was grievous to me.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: I hated all the things I had toiled for under
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: the sun, because I must leave them to the one
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: who comes after me, and who knows whether that person
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: will be wise or foolish, Yet they will have control
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: over all the fruit of my toil, into which I
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a person
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: must leave all they own to another who is not
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: What do people get for all the toil, an anxious
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: striving with which they labor under the sun. All their days,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: their work is grief and pain. Even at night their
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: minds do not rest. This too is meaningless. A person
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: can do nothing better than to eat and drink and
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: is from the hand of God, for without him, who
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: can eat or find enjoyment. To the person who pleases him,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness. But to the sinner
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: to hand it over to the one who pleases God.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: This too is meaningless. A chasing after the wind Ecclesiastes three.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: There is a time for everything, and a season for
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: every activity under the heavens. A time to be borne
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: and a time to die, a time to plant and
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: a time to uproot, a time to kill and a
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: time to heal. A time to tear down and a
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: time to build. A time to weep and a time
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: A time to search and a time to give up.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: A time to keep and a time to throw away.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: A time to tear and a time to mend. A
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: time to be silent and a time to speak, a
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: time to love and a time to hate, A time
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: for war and a time for peace. What do workers
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: has laid on the human race. He has made everything
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: the human heart. Yet no one can fathom what God
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: has done from beginning to end. I know that there
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: is nothing better for people than to be happy and
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: to do good while they live, that each of them
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: This is a gift of God. I know that everything
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: God does will endure forever. Nothing can be added to
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: it and nothing taken from it. God does it so
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: that people will fear Him. Whatever has already been and
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: what will be has been before. And God will call
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: the past to account. And I saw something else under
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: the sun. In the place of judgment, wickedness was there,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: In the place of justice, wickedness was there. I said
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: to myself, God will bring into judgment both the righteous
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: and the wicked, for there will be a time for
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: every activity, a time to judge every deed. I also
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: said to myself, as for humans, God tests them so
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: the fate of human beings is like that of the animals.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: The same fate awaits them. Both. As one dies, so
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: dies the other. All have the same breath. Humans have
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: no advance over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: the same place. All come from dust, and to dust,
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: and if the spirit of the animal goes down into
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: the earth. So I saw that there is nothing better
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: for a person than to enjoy their work because that
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: is their lot. For who can bring them to see
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: what will happen after them? Ecclesiastes form again, I looked
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: and saw all the oppression that was taking place under
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: they have no comforter. Power was on the side of
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: their oppressors, and they have no comforter. And declared that
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: the dead, who had already died, are happier than the
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: living who are still alive. But better than both is
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: the one who has never been born, who has not
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: seen the evil that is done under the sun. And
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: one person's envy of another. This too is meaningless, But
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: chasing after the wind fools fold their hands and ruined themselves.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil,
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: and chasing after the wind. Again, I saw something meaningless
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: under the sun. There was a man all alone. He
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: had neither son nor brother. There was no end to
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: his toil. Yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: For who am I toiling? He asked? And why am
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: I depriving myself of enjoyment? This too is meaningless. A
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: miserable business. Two are better than one because they have
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: a good return for their labor. If either of them
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: falls down, one can help the other up. But pity
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also,
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: if two lie down together, they will keep warm, But
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: not quickly broken. Better a poor but wise youth than
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: an old but foolish king who no longer knows how
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: to heat of warning. The youth may have come from
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: prison to the kingship, or he may have been born
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: in poverty within his kingdom. I saw that all who
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: lived and walked under the sun followed the youth the
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: king's successor. There was no end to all the people
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: who were before them, But those who came later were
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: not pleased with a successor. This too, is meaningless, but
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes five. Guard your steps when
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: you go to the house of God. Go near to listen,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools who do
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: you are on earth. So let your words be feel.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: A dream comes when there are many cares and many
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: words mark the speech of a fool. When you make
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: He has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill your vow. It
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: is better not to make a vow than to make
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: one and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: lead you into sin. Do not protest to the temple messenger,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: my vow was a mistake. Why should God be angry
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: at what you say and destroy the work of your hands.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: Much dreaming in many words are meaningless. Therefore, fear God.
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: If you see the poor pressed in a district, and
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: For one official is eyed by a higher one, and
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: over them both are others higher. Still, the increase from
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: the land is taken by all. The king himself profits
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: from the fields. Whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: And what benefit are they to the owners, except to
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: feast their eyes on them. The sleep of a laborer
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: is sweet, whether they eat little or much. But as
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep. I've
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: seen a grievous evil under the sun, wealth hoarded to
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: the harm of its owners, or wealth lost through some misfortune,
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: so that when they have children there is nothing left
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: for them to inherit. Everyone comes naked from their mother's womb,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: and as everyone comes, so they depart. They will take
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands. This,
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: too is a grievous evil. As everyone comes, so they depart,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: And what do they gain? Since they toil for the
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: wind all their days? They eat in darkness with great frustration, affliction,
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: and anger. This is what I have observed to be good.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: That it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink,
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: sun during the few days of life God has given them,
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: for this is their lot. Moreover, when God gives someone
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy them to excit,
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: accept their lot, and be happy in their toil, this
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: is a gift of God. They seldom reflect on the
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: days of their life because God keeps them occupied with
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: gladness of heart. Ecclesiastes six. I have seen another evil
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind. God
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: gives some people wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: lack nothing in their heart's desire. But God does not
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil. A man
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: may have a hundred children and live many years, Yet
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: that a stillborn child is better off than he. It
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: comes without meaning, It departs in darkness, and in darkness
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: its name is shrouded. Though it never saw the sun
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: or knew anything. It has more rest than does that man.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: Even if he lives a thousand years twice over but
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: the same place. Everyone's toil is for their mouth, yet
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: their appetite is never satisfied. What advantage have the wis
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: over fools? What do the poor gain by knowing how
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: to conduct themselves? Before others. Better what the eye sees
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: than the roving of the appetite. This too, is meaningless,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: a chasing after the wind. Whatever exists has already been named,
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: and what humanity is has been known. No one can
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: contend with someone who is stronger. The more the words,
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: the less the meaning, And how does that profit anyone?
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: For who knows what is good for a person in life?
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: During the few and meaningless days they pass through like
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: the sun after they are gone? Ecclesiastes seven. A good
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: name is better than fine perfume, and the day of
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: death better than the day of birth. It is better
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: to go to a house of mourning than to a
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone.
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: The living should take this to heart. Frustration is better
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: persse then to listen to the song of fools. Like
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: laughter of fools. This too, is meaningless. Extortion turns a
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: and patience is better than pride. Do not be quickly
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: of fools. Do not say why were the old days
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: better than these? For it is not wise to ask
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: such questions. Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: and benefits those who see the sun. Wisdom is a shelter,
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: as money is a shelter. But the advantage of knowledge,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: this wisdom preserves those who have it. Consider what God
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: has done. Who can straighten what He has made crooked?
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: When times are good, be happy. But when times are bad,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: consider this. God has made the one as well as
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: the other. Therefore no one can discover anything about their future.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: In this meaningless life of mine. I have seen both
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: of these, the righteous perishing in their righteousness, and the
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: wicked living long in their wickedness. Do not be over righteous,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: neither be overwise. Why destroy yourself? Do not be over wicked,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: and do not be a fool. Why die before your time?
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: It is good to grasp the one and not let
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: go of the other. Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: Wisdom makes one person more powerful than ten rulers in
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: a city. Indeed, there is no one on earth who
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: is righteous, no one who does what is right and
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: never sins. Do not pay attention to every word people say,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: or you may hear your servant cursing you, for you
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: know in your heart that many times you yourself have
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: cursed others. All this I tested by wisdom, and I said,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: I am determined to be wise, But this was beyond me.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: Whatever exists is far off and most profound. Who can
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: discover it? So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things,
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: of folly. I find more bitter than death. The woman
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare. Look says
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: the teacher, this is what I have discovered, adding one
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: thing to another to discover the scheme of things. While
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: I was still searching but not finding, I found one
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: among them. All this only have I found God created
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: mankind upright, But they have gone in search of many schemes.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: Ecclesiastes ate, who is like the wise, who knows that
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: the explanation of things a person's wisdom brightens their face
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: and changes its hard appearance. Obey the king's command, I say,
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: because you took an oath before God, do not be
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: in a hurry to leave the king's presence. Do not
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: stand up for a bad cause, for he will do
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: whatever he pleases. Since a king's word is supreme, who
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: can say to him, what are you doing? Whoever obeys
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: his command will come to no harm. And the wise
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: heart will know the proper time and procedure, For there
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: is a proper time and procedure for every matter. Though
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: a person may be weighed down by misery, since no
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: one knows the future, who can tell someone else what
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: is to come? And no one has power over the
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: wind to contain it. So no one has power over
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: the time of their death. As no one is discharged
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: in time of wame war, so wickedness will not release
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: those who practice it. All this I saw as I
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: is a time when a man lords it over others
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: to his own heart. Then too I saw the wicked buried,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: those who used to come and go from the Holy
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: place and receive praise in the city where they did this.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: This too, is meaningless. When the sentence for a crime
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: is not quickly carried out, people's hearts are filled with
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: schemes to do wrong. Although a wicked person who commits
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: that it will go better with those who fear God,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: who are reverent before him. Yet, because the wicked do
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: not fear God, it will not go well with them,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: and their days will not Lengthen, like a shadow, there
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: is something else, meaningless that occurs on earth. The righteous
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: get what the righteous deserve. This, too, I say, is meaningless.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: nothing better for a person under the sun than to
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: them and their toil all the days of the life
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: God has given them under the sun. When I applied
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: my mind to no wisdom, and to observe the labor
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: that is done on earth, people getting no sleep day
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: or night. Then I saw all that God has done.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: Despite all their efforts to search it out. No one
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: they cannot really comprehend it Ecclesiastes nine. So I reflect
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: it on all this and concluded that the righteous and
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: the wise and what they do are in God's hands.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: But no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: All share a common destiny, the righteous and the wicked,
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: it is with the good, so it is with the sinful,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: as it is with those who take oaths, so with
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: those who are afraid to take them. This is the
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: evil in everything that happens under the sun. The same
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: destiny overtakes all the hearts of people. Moreover, are full
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: of evil, and there is madness in their hearts while
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: they live, and afterward they join the dead. Anyone who
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: is among the living has hope. Even a live dog
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: is better off than a dead lion, for the living
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: know that they will die, but the dead know nothing.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: They have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: Their love, their hate, and their jealousy have long since vanished.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: Never again will they have a part in anything that
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: happens under the sun. Go eat your food with gladness,
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: and drink your wine with a joyful heart. For God
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: has already approved what you do. Always be clothed in white,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: your wife, whom you love, all the days of this
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: meaningless life that God has given you under the sun,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life,
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: hand finds to do, do it with all your might.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: For in the realm of the dead, where you are going,
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: there is neither working, nor planning, nor knowledge nor wisdom.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: I have seen something else under the sun. The race
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: Nor does food come to the wise, or wealth to
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: the brilliant, or favor to the learned. But time and
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: chance happened to them all. Moreover, no one knows when
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: their hour will come as fish are caught in a
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare. So
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: that greatly impressed me. There was once a small city
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: with only a few people in it, and a powerful
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: king came against it, surrounded it, and built huge siege
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: works against it. Now there lived in that city a man,
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom.
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: But nobody remembered that poor man. So I said, wisdom
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: is better than strength. But the poor man's wisdom is despised,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: and his words are no longer heeded. The quiet words
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: of the wise are more to be heated than the
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: shouts of a ruler of fools. Wisdom is better than
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good Ecclesiastes ten.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, So a
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. The heart of the
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: fool to the left. Even as fools walk along the road,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: they lack sense and show everyone how stupid they are.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: If a ruler's anger rises against you, do not leave
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: your post. Calmness can lay great offenses to rest. There
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: is an evil I have seen under the sun, the
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: sort of error that arises from a ruler. Fools are
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: put in many high positions, while the rich occupy the
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: low ones. I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: go on foot like slaves. Whoever digs a pit may
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: fall into it. Whoever breaks through a wall may be
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: bitten by snake. Whoever quarry stones may be injured by them.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: Whoever splits logs may be endangered by them. If the
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: axe is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed,
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: but skill will bring success. If a snake bites before
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: it is charmed, the charmer receives no fee. Words from
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: the mouth of the wise are gracious, but fools are
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: consumed by their own lips. At the beginning, their words
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: are folly. At the end, they are wicked. Madness and
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: fools multiply words. No one knows what is coming. Who
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: can tell someone else what will happen after them? The
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: toils of fools wearies them. They do not know the
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: way to town. Woe to the land whose king was
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: a servant, and whose princes feast in the morning. Blessed
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: is the land whose kings of noble birth, and whose
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: princes eat at a proper time for strength and not
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: for drunkenness. Through laziness, the rafters sag because of idle hands,
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: the house leaks, a feast is made for laughter. Wine
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: makes life merry, and money is the answer for everything.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: Do not revile the king in your thoughts, or curse
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: the rich in your bedroom, because a bird in the
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: sky may carry your words, and a bird on the
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: wing may report what you say. Ecclesiastes eleven. Ship your
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: grain across the sea. After many days, you may receive
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: a return. Invest in seven ventures, yes in eight. You
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: to the north, in the place where it falls, there
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: it will lie. Whoever watches the wind will not plant.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: Whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. As you
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: do not know the path of the wind, or how
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: the body is formed in a mother's womb, So you
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: cannot understand the work of God. The maker of all things.
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: Sow your seed in the morning and at evening. Let
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: your hands not be idle, for you do not know
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: will do equally well. Light is sweet, and it pleases
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: the eyes to see the sun. However many years anyone
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: may live, let them enjoy them all, but let them
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: remember the days of darkness, for there will be many.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: Everything to come is meaningless. You who are young, be
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: happy while you are young, and let your heart give
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: you joy. In the days of your youth. Follow the
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see. But
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: know that for all these things God will bring you
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: into judgment. So then banish anxiety from your heart and
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: cast off the troubles of your body. For youth and
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: vigor are meaningless. Ecclesiastes twelve. Remember your Creator in the
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: days of your youth, before the days of trouble come,
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: and the years approach, when you will say I find
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: no pleasure in them. Before the sun and the light,
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: clouds return after the rain, when the keepers of the
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: house tremble and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease,
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: because they are few, and those looking through the windows
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: grow dim. When the doors to the street are closed,
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: and the sound of grinding fades. When people rise up
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: at the sound of birth words, but all their songs
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: grow faint. When people are afraid of heights and of
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: dangers in the streets. When the almond tree blossoms and
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire was no longer stirred.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: Then people go to their eternal home, and mourners go
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: about the streets, remember him before the silver cord is
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: severed and the golden bull is broken, Before the picture
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: the well, and the dust returns to the ground it
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: it meaningless. Meaningless, says the teacher, Everything is meaningless. Not
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: only was the teacher wise, but he also imparted knowledge
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: to the people. He pondered and searched out, and set
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: in order many proverbs. The teacher search to find just
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: The words of the wise are like goads, their collected
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: sayings like firmly embedded nails given by one shepherd, be warned,
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: my son of anything in addition to them of making
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: many books. There is no end, and much study wearies
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: the body. Now all has been heard, Here is the
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments,
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: for this is the duty of all mankind. For God
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: whether it is good or evil. Ecclesiastes one the words
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: of the teacher, son of David King and Jerusalem. Meaningless, meaningless,
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: says the teacher, utterly meaningless. Everything is meaningless. What do
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: people gain from all their labors at which they toil
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: under the sun? Generations come and generations go, But the
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun sets
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: to the south and turns to the north. Round and
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: to the place the streams come from. There they return again.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear it's
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: has been done will be done again. There is nothing
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: new under the sun. Is there anything of which one
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: can say, Look, this is something new. It was here
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: already long ago. It was here before our time. No
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: come will not be remembered by those who follow them.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: I the Teacher, was king over Israel and Jerusalem. I
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: burden God has laid on mankind. I have seen all
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: the things that are done under the sun. All of
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. What is
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: crooked cannot be straightened, what is lacking cannot be counted.
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: I said to myself, Look, I have increased in wisdom
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me.
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge. Then I
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: madness and folly. But I learned that this too is
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: much sorrow. The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes too,
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: I said to myself, Come now, I will test you
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: with pleasure to find out what is good, but that
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: also proved to be meaningless. Laughter, I said, is madness,
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: and what does pleasure accomplish? I tried cheering myself with
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: wine and embracing folly, my mind still guiding me with wisdom.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: I wanted to see what was good for people to
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: I undertook great projects. I built houses for myself and
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves,
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: and had other slaves who were born in my house.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: I also owned more herds and flocks than any one
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: and female singers and a harem, as well the delights
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: of a man's heart. I became greater by far than
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: any one in Jerusalem before me. In all this, my
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired.
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: in all my labor, and this was the reward for
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: all my toil. Yet, when I surveyed all that my
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve,
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: everything was meaningless. A chasing after the wind. Nothing was
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: gained under the sun. Then I turned my thoughts to
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: the king's successor do than what has already been done.
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: light is better than darkness. The wise have eyes in
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness. But
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: Then I said to myself, the fate of the fool
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: will overtake me also, What then do I gain by
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: being wise? Said to myself, this too is meaningless, for
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered.
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: The days have already come when both have been forgotten.
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: Like the fool, the wise too must die. So I
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: hated life because the work that has done under the
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless,
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: I had toiled for under the sun, because I must
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: leave them to the one who comes after me, and
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: Yet they will have control over all the fruit of
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: my toil, into which I have poured my effort and
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: the sun. For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge,
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: and skill, and then they must leave all that own
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: to another who is not toiled for it. This too
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: is meaningless and a great misfortune. What do people get
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: for all the toil and anxious striving with which they
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: labor under the sun all their days? Their work is
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: grief and pain. Even at night their minds do not rest.
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: This too is meaningless. A person can do nothing better
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: own toil. This, too, I see, is from the hand
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: of God, For without him, who can eat or find enjoyment.
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge,
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: and happiness. But to the sinner he gives the task
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: of gathering and storing up wealth, to hand it over
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: to the one who pleases God, This too is meaningless,
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: a chasing after the wind Ecclesiastes three. There is a
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: time for everything, and a season for every activity under
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: the heavens. A time to be borne and a time
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: a time to kill and a time to heal. A
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: time to tear down and a time to build. A
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: time to weep and a time to laugh, a time
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: to mourn and a time to dance. A time to
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: scatter stones and a time to gather them. A time
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: time to search and a time to give up. A
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: time to keep and a time to throw away. A
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: time to tear and a time to mend. A time
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: to be silent and a time to speak, a time
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: to love and a time to hate, A time for
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: war and a time for peace. What do workers gain
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: from their toil? I have seen the burden God has
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: in its time. He has also set eternity in the
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: human heart. Yet no one can fathom what God has
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: done from beginning to end. I know that there is
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: nothing better for people than to be happy and to
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: do good while they live, that each of them may
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil.
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: This is a gift of God. I know that everything
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: God does will end door forever. Nothing can be added
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: to it and nothing taken from it. God does it
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: so that people will fear Him. Whatever has already been
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: and what will be has been before. And God will
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: call the past to account. And I saw something else
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: under the sun. In the place of judgment, Wickedness was there,
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: In the place of justice. Wickedness was there. I said
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: to myself. God will bring into judgment both the righteous
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: and the wicked, for there will be a time for
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: every activity, a time to judge every deed. I also
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: said to myself, as for humans, God tests them so
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely,
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: the fate of human beings is like that of the
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: animal animals. The same fate awaits them. Both. As one dies,
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: so dies the other. All have the same breath. Humans
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: to the same place. All come from dust, and to
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward,
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: and if the spirit of the animal goes down into
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: the earth. So I saw that there is nothing better
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: for a person than to enjoy their work, because that
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: is their lot. For who can bring them to see
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: what will happen after them? Ecclesiastes form Again, I looked
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: and saw all the oppression that was taking place under
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: they have no comforter. Power was on the side of
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: their oppressors, and they have no comforter. And I declared
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: that the dead, who had already died, are happier than
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: the living who are still alive. But better than both
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: is the one who has never been born, who has
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: not seen the evil that is done under the sun.
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: from one person's envy of another. This too, is meaningless,
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: a chasing after the wind. Fools fold their hands and
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: ruined themselves. Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: with toil and chasing after the wind. Again, I saw
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: something meaningless under the sun. There was a man all alone.
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: He had neither son nor brother. There was no end
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: to his toil. Yet his eyes were not content with
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: his wealth. For who am I toiling, he asked? And
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: why am I depriving myself of enjoyment? This too is
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: meaningless a miserable business. Two are better than one because
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: they have a good return for their labor. If either
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: of them falls down, one can help the other up.
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: But pity anyone who falls and has no one to
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Better a
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: who no longer knows how to heat of warning. The
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: youth may have come from prison to the kingship, or
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: he may have been born in poverty within his kingdom.
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: I saw that all who lived and walked under the
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: sun followed the youth the king's successor. There was no
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: end to all the people who were before them, But
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: those who came later were not pleased with the successor.
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: This too is meaningless, but chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes five.
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: Go near to listen, rather than to offer the sacrifice
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: of fools who do not know that they do wrong.
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: Do not be quick with your mouth. Do not be
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: is in heaven and you are on earth. So let
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: your words be few. A dream comes when there are
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: many cares and many words mark the speech of a fool.
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: When you make a vow to God, do not delay
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: your vow. It is better not to make a vow
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: than to make one and not fulfill it. Do not
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: let your mouth lead you into sin. Do not protest
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: to the temple messenger my vow was a mistake. Why
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: should God be angry at what you say? Say and
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: destroy the work of your hands. Much dreaming and many
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: words are meaningless. Therefore fear God. If you see the
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied,
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: do not be surprised at such things. For one official
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: is eyed by a higher one, and over them both
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: are others higher Still. The increase from the land is
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: taken by all. The king himself profits from the fields.
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: Whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. As
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: benefit are they to the owners except to feast their
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: eyes on them. The sleep of a laborer is sweet,
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: whether they eat little or much, But as the rich,
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: their abundance permits them no sleep. I've seen a grievous
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: evil under the sun, wealth hoarded to the harm of
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: its owners, or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: when they have children there is nothing left for them
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: to inherit. Everyone comes naked from their mother's womb, and
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: as everyone comes, so they depart. They will take nothing
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: from their toil that they can carry in their hands.
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: This too is a grievous evil. As everyone comes, so
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: they depart, And what do they gain? Since they toil
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: for the wind all their days? They eat in darkness
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: with great frustration, affliction, and anger. This is what I
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: have observed to be good. That it is appropriate for
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: a person to eat, to drink, and to find satisfaction
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: in their toilsome labor under the sun during the days
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: of life God has given them, for this is their lot. Moreover,
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: when God gives someone wealth and possessions and the ability
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: in their toil. This is a gift of God. They
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: seldom reflect on the days of their life because God
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: keeps them occupied with gladness of heart. Ecclesiastes six. I
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: heavily on mankind. God gives some people wealth, possessions, and honor,
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: so that they lack nothing in their heart's desire. But
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them,
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: A man may have a hundred children and live many years.
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: Yet no matter how long how long he lives, if
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial,
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: It comes without meaning, It departs in darkness, and in
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: darkness its name is shrouded. Though it never saw the
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: sun or knew anything. It has more rest than does
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: that man. Even if he lives a thousand years twice
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: go to the same place. Everyone's toil is for their mouth,
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: yet their appetite is never satisfied. What advantage have the
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: whys over fools? What do the poor gain by knowing
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: how to conduct themselves before others? Better what the eye
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: sees than the roving of the appetite, This too, is meaningless,
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: a chasing after the wind. Whatever exists has already been named,
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: and what humanity is has been known. No one can
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: contend with someone who is stronger. The more the words,
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: the less the meaning, And how does that profit anyone?
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: For who knows what is good for a person in life?
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: During the few and meaningless days they pass through? Like
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: the sun after they are gone? Ecclesiastes seven. A good
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: name is better than fine perfume, and the day of
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: death better than the day of birth. It is better
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: to go to a house of mourning than to a
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone.
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: The living should take this to heart. Frustration is better
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: person than to listen to the song of fools. Like
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: laughter of fools. This, too is meaningless. Extortion turns a
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: and patience is better than pride. Do not be quickly
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: of fools. Do not say why were the old days
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: better than these? For it is not wise to ask
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: such questions. Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: and benefits those who see the sun. Wisdom is a shelter,
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: as money is a shelter. But the advantage of knowledge
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: is this wisdom preserves those who have it. Consider what
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: God has done. Who can straighten what He has made crooked?
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: When times are good, be happy. But when times are bad,
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: consider this God has made the one as well as
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: In this meaningless life of mine. I have seen both
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: of these, the righteous perishing in their righteousness, and the
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: wicked living long in their wickedness. Do not be over righteous,
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: neither be overwise, Why destroy yourself? Do not be over wicked,
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: and do not be a fool. Why die before your time?
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: It is good to grasp the one and not let
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: go of the other. Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: Wisdom makes one person more powerful than ten rulers in
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: a city. Indeed, there is no one on earth who
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: is righteous, no one who does what is right and
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: never sins. Do not pay attention to every word people say.
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: Or you may hear your servant cursing you, for you
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: know in your heart that many times you yourself, have
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: cursed others. All this I tested by wisdom, and I said,
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: I am determined to be wise. But this was beyond me.
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: Whatever exists is far off and most profound who can
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: discover it? So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate,
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things,
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: of folly. I find more bitter than death. The woman
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: who was a snare, whose heart is a trap and
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare. Look says
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: the teacher this is what I have discovered, adding one
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: thing to another to discover the scheme of things. While
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: I was still searching but not finding, I found one
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: among them. All this only have I found God created
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: mankind upright. But they have gone in search of many schemes.
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: Ecclesiastes at who is like the wise, who knows the
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: explanation of things? A person's wisdom brightens their face and
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: changes its hard appearance. Obey the king's command, I say,
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: because you took an oath before God, do not be
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: in a hurry to leave the king's presence. Do not
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: stand up for a bad cause, for he will do
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: whatever he pleases. Since a king's word is supreme, who
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: can say to him, what are you doing? Whoever obeys
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: his command will come to no harm. And the wise
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: heart will know the proper time and procedure, For there
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: is a proper time and procedure for every matter. Though
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: a person may be weighed down by misery, since no
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: one knows the future, who can tell someone else what
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: is to come? And no one has power over the
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: wind to contain it. So no one has power over
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: the time of their death, as no one is discharged
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: in time of war, so wickedness will not release those
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: who practice it. All this I saw as I applied
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: my mind to everything done under the sun. There is
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: a time when a man lords it over others to
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: his own heart. Then, too I saw the wicked buried,
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: those who used to come and go from the Holy
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: place and receive praise in the city where they did this.
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: This too, is meaningless. When the sentence for a crime
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: is not quickly carried out, people's hearts are filled with
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: schemes to do wrong. Although a wicked person who commits
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: that it will go better with those who fear God,
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: who are reverent before him. Yet, because the wicked do
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: not fear God, it will not go well with them,
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: and their days will not Lengthen, like a shadow, there
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: is something else, meaningless that occurs on earth. The righteous
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: get what the righteous deserve. This, too, I say, is meaningless.
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: nothing better for a person under the sun than to
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: them and their toil all the days of the life
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: God has given them under the sun. When I applied
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: my mind to no wisdom and to observe the labor
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: that is done on earth, people getting no sleep day
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: or night, then I saw all that God has done.
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun.
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: Despite all their efforts to search it out. No one
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know,
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: they cannot really comprehend it Ecclesiastes nine. So I reflected
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise,
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: and what they do are in God's hands. But no
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: one knows whether love or hate awaits them. All share
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: a common destiny, the righteous and the wicked, the good
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: with the good, so it is with the sinful, As
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: it is with those who take oaths, so with those
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: who are afraid to take them. This is the evil
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: in everything that happens under the sun. The same destiny
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: overtakes all the hearts of people. Moreover, are full of evil,
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: and there is madness in their hearts while they live,
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: and afterward they join the dead. Anyone who is among
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: the living has hope. Even a live dog is better
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: off than a dead lion, for the living know that
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: they will die. But the dead know nothing. They have
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: no further reward, and even their name is forgotten. Their love,
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: their hate, and their jealousy have long since vanished. Never
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: again will they have a part in anything that happens
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: under the sun. Go eat your food with gladness, and
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: already approved what you do. Always be clothed in white,
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: your wife, whom you love, all the days of this
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: meaningless life that God has given you under the sun,
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life,
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: hand finds to do, do it with all your might.
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: For in the realm of the dead, where you are going,
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: there is neither working, nor planning, nor knowledge nor wisdom.
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: I have seen something else under the sun. The race
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong.
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: Nor does food come to the wise, or wealth to
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: the brilliant, or favor to the learned. But time and
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: chance happen to them all. Moreover, no one knows when
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: their hour will come. As fish are caught in a
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare. So
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: that greatly impressed me. There was once a small city
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: with only a few people in it, and a powerful
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: king came against it, surrounded it, and built huge siege
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: works against it. Now there lived in that city a man,
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom.
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: But nobody remembered that poor man. So I said, wisdom
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: is better than strength. But the poor man's wisdom is despised,
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: and his words are no longer heeded. The quiet words
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: of the wise are more to be heated than the
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: shouts of a ruler of fools. Wisdom is better than
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: weapons of war, But one sinner destroys much good Ecclesiastes ten.
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, So a
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: little folly outweighs wisdom and honor of the wise inclines
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: to the right but the heart of the fool to
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: the left. Even as fools walk along the road, they
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: lack sense and show everyone how stupid they are. If
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: a ruler's anger rises against you, do not leave your post.
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: Calmness can lay great offenses to rest. There is an
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: evil I have seen under the sun, the sort of
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: error that arises from a ruler. Fools are put in
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: many high positions, while the rich occupy the low ones.
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: foot like slaves. Whoever digs a pit may fall into it.
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: Whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by snake.
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: Whoever quarry stones may be injured by them. Whoever splits
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: law may be endangered by them. If the axe is
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: skill will bring success. If a snake bites before it
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: is charmed, the charmer receives no fee. Words from the
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: mouth of the wise are gracious, but fools are consumed
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: by their own lips. At the beginning, their words are folly.
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: At the end they are wicked. Madness and fools multiply words.
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: No one knows what is coming. Who can tell someone
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: else what will happen after them. The toils of fools
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: wearies them. They do not know the way to town.
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: Woe to the land whose king was a servant, and
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: whose princes feast in the morning. Blessed is the land
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: whose king is of noble birth, and whose princes eat
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: a a proper time for strength and not for drunkenness.
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: Through laziness, the rafters sag because of idle hands, the
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: house leaks, a feast is made for laughter. Wine makes
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: life merry, and money is the answer for everything. Do
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: not revile the king in your thoughts, or curse the
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: rich in your bedroom. Because a bird in the sky
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: may carry your words, and a bird on the wing
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 1: may report what you say. Ecclesiastes eleven. Ship your grain
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: across the sea. After many days, you may receive a return.
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: Invest in seven ventures, yes in eight. You do not
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: know what disaster may come upon the land. If clouds
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: are full of water, they pour rain on the earth.
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: in the place where it falls, there it will lie.
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 1: Whoever watches the wind will not plant. Whoever looks at
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: the clouds will not reap. As you do not know
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: the path of the wind, or how the body is
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: formed in a mother's womb. So you cannot understand the
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: work of God, the maker of all things. Sow your
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: seed in the morning and at evening. Let your hands
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed,
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: the sun. However many years any one may live, let
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: them enjoy them all, but let them remember the days
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: of darkness, for there will be many. Everything to come
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: is meaningless. You who are young, be happy while you
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: are young, and let your heart give you joy in
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart,
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: and whatever your eyes see. But know that for all
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: these things God will bring you into judgment. So then
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 1: of your body. For youth and vigor are meaningless. Ecclesiastes twelve.
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: the days of trouble come, and the years approach, when
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: you will say I find no pleasure in them. Before
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: the sun and the light, and the moon and the
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain,
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: men stoop, When the grinders cease because they are few,
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: and those looking through the windows grow dim, when the
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: doors to the street are closed, and the sound of
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: grinding fades. When people rise up at the sound of birds,
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: but all their songs grow faint. When people are afraid
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: of heights and of dangers in the streets. When the
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags itself along, and
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: desire is no longer stirred. Then people go to their
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: eternal home, and mourners go about the streets, remember him,
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: before the silver cord is severed and the golden bull
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: is broken, before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: returns to God, who gave it meaningless, meaningless, as the teacher,
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: everything is meaningless. Not only was the teacher wise, but
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: he also imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: searched out and set in order many proverbs. The teacher
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 1: searched to find just the right words, and what he
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: wrote was upright and true. The words of the wise
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: given by one shepherd. Be warned, my son of anything
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: in addition to them, of making many books. There is
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: no end, and much study wearies the body. Now all
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: has been heard, Here is the conclusion of the matter.
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: or evil.