Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine(A) with a joyful heart,(B) for God has already approved what you do. Always be clothed in white,(C) and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife,(D) whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot(E) in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever(F) your hand finds to do, do it with all your might,(G) for in the realm of the dead,(H) where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.(I)

11 I have seen something else under the sun:

The race is not to the swift
    or the battle to the strong,(J)
nor does food come to the wise(K)
    or wealth to the brilliant
    or favor to the learned;
but time and chance(L) happen to them all.(M)

12 Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:

As fish are caught in a cruel net,
    or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by evil times(N)
    that fall unexpectedly upon them.(O)

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Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.

Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.

Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.

10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

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